LeBron James Jr., the son of the N.B.A. star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest while practicing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Monday and was taken to the hospital for treatment in the intensive care unit, according to a statement from a spokesman for LeBron James and his wife, Savannah. The younger James, known as Bronny, is now in stable condition and no longer in the I.C.U., the statement said.
“LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the U.S.C. medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes,” the statement said.
Bronny James, 18, will be a freshman at U.S.C. this fall. He is the eldest of Lakers star LeBron James’s three children. Bronny James was a four-star recruit and chose U.S.C. over Oregon and Ohio State.
The U.S.C. men’s basketball program was scheduled to go on a 10-day exhibition trip to Greece and Croatia beginning Aug. 5, according to a statement it released in May. It was not clear whether the team would still make the trip or whether James would go.
U.S.C. has experience handling cardiac emergencies. During a workout at U.S.C.’s Galen Center last summer, incoming freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu suffered cardiac arrest and was hospitalized. Iwuchukwu returned to play in 14 games for the Trojans last season.
Keyontae Johnson, a budding star at Florida, went into cardiac arrest during a game in 2020. He eventually recovered and resumed his career at Kansas State, where he starred last season on a team that nearly reached the Final Four. Johnson was drafted by Oklahoma City in the second round of the N.B.A. draft in June.
Few cardiac events have played out more publicly than the one involving Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills safety who suffered cardiac arrest during a game last season. Hamlin, who is trying to resume his career, posted a message of support for James on Twitter: “Prayers to Bronny & The James family as well. here for you guys just like you have been for me my entire process.”
U.S.C. basketball is often an afterthought on campus, where football reigns supreme.
But that was expected to change this season — in part because of the presence of the younger James, who has 7.5 million followers on Instagram and would be playing home games within walking distance of the arena where his father stars for the Lakers.
Crowds were expected to follow James just as they had since the summer before he entered high school, when fans were turned away at the door of a gym at Peach Jam, a premier high school recruiting showcase, to watch him play against others in his age group.
As he grew and his game developed, James came to be viewed by college coaches as a complimentary player with a good basketball IQ — a guard who was viewed as contributor but not a star on a team with Final Four ambitions.
His recruitment, though, largely played out as “don’t call us, we’ll call you” — and he eventually took visits not to basketball powers like Duke and Kentucky. Instead, he toured places where he might play more readily: Oregon, whose benefactor is Nike founder Phil Knight, the shoe company that has a strong relationship with the elder James; Ohio State, the school LeBron said he would have attended if he had been required to go to college before going to the N.B.A.; and his close-to-home school, U.S.C.
The Trojans will also have D.J. Rodman, a transfer from Washington State, whose father, Dennis, was a pop culture sensation in the ’90s. But it is more than a team of scions of basketball stars.
U.S.C. should be quite good after adding one of the top freshmen in the country, Isaiah Collier, a point guard from Marietta, Ga. He will team with Boogie Ellis, the Pac-12’s second-leading returning scorer; center Joshua Morgan, who led the conference in blocks; and guard Kobe Johnson, who is the conference’s leading returner in steals.
Iwuchukwu, a 7-foot-1 center, is also considered a top N.B.A. prospect.
After this season Bronny James would be eligible for the N.B.A. draft. LeBron James has often said he would like to play on an N.B.A. team with his son, and has even hinted that he wants to play with his younger son, Bryce, 16, who attends Campbell Hall High School in Los Angeles.
LeBron James, 38, led the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals last season, which was his 20th season in the N.B.A. In February he became the N.B.A.’s all-time leading scorer, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had held the title for nearly 39 years.
Tania Ganguli
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