Almost all families have their moments of immense pride, be it simply watching a child grow into a happy, kind adult, a family member getting married or being the first from the family to graduate from university. Each moment is special and magical in its own way but then beyond what is important solely within the family unit, some individuals or groups achieve things that have a wider significance.
Many individuals achieve things that are simply incredible and almost make us feel proud simply to have seen them, or even just to be human. But then there are also accomplishments made by families that, objectively at least, go far beyond your Gran’s prize courgette being honoured at the local show, or your brother getting in the paper because he made the semi final of Britain’s Got Talent.
And it is safe to say that the James family enjoyed a momentous occasion on the 22nd of October, 2024, when father LeBron and son Bronny became the first father and son to appear on the same court during a full NBA game. That is a family achievement that we can all marvel at and one that must have given an enormous amount of pride to the pair’s friends and family.
LeBron and Bronny James
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LeBron is one of basketball’s GOATs, and at the age of 39 – he will be 40 in December – is still going strong. King James has four NBA championships to his name and almost countless individual awards, honours and records. In each of his championship wins he was the MVP in the Finals, whilst he has also won three Olympic golds with USA.
The Ohio native is truly one of the greats and has won the NBA title with three different teams, Miami, Cleveland and his current team the LA Lakers. Quite how much longer he has at the top of the sport we do not know, but in a very small sense he handed the baton over on Wednesday night.
It is, of course, highly improbable that Bronny will be anything like the player his father has been. Even so, the former USC Trojans point guard, who turned 20 earlier in the month, has already achieved so much, even just by making it to the court in the NBA. For him to make his debut alongside his father must have been an unimaginable dream for both and, of course, the Lakers even managed to win the game too.
No father and son have ever played in basketball’s elite league in the same game and so it was a historic moment. But they are far from the only family unit to have made history together.
Baseball’s Dream Family Watch On
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In fact, LeBron and Bronny were not the only family double-act inside the Crypto.com Arena at the time they made the NBA record books. Watching on were their baseball equivalent, with Ken Griffey Sr and Ken Griffey Jr having also played at the highest level in their sport. The duo appeared together a number of times for the Seattle Mariners.
Bronny will have to go some if he is to match Griffey Jr in surpassing the achievements of his father. Griffey Sr was no slouch, winning the World Series twice with Cincinnati Reds and being a three-time All-Star. However, his son, with whom he played 51 times in 1990 and 1991, took things to the next level, at least in an individual sense.
Whilst he never managed to win the World Series, Ken Griffey Jr played 22 seasons in the NBA, mainly with two of his father’s teams, the Mariners and the Reds. In that time he hit 630 home runs, being one of only eight players to hit more than 600. He also won the Golden Glove 10 times and is a 13-time All-Star. A member of the Hall of Fame with both Seattle and Cincinnati, he was also named in the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Famous Football Families
Moving away from American sports – so when we say football, we mean football! – there are several very high-profile family connections in football. Over the years there have been countless brothers to have played either for the same team, against each other, or even both.
Bobby and Jack Charlton
The most famous, and certainly highest achieving from an English perspective are the Charlton brothers. Bobby is perhaps England’s greatest-ever player and won the European Cup and several other trophies with Manchester United. Jack played for rivals Leeds United and was part of their great sides of the 1960s and 1970s, winning the league, the FA Cup, the League Cup and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups with the West Yorkshire outfit.
Most impressively, however, the pair played alongside each other for England. And not only did they do that, they did so in the sport’s biggest game, the World Cup final, helping England to victory in 1966.
Gary and Phil Neville, Etc.
Football has many other famous brothers, including more recently Gary and Phil Neville, who also played for England together, and most recently Jobe and Jude Bellingham, who may yet do so. There are also Yaya and Kolo Toure, Frank and Ronald de Boer and many others.
However, when it comes to a father and son playing either against each other, or with each other, there are no high-profile examples as far as we know, with just the odd occurrence in low-level clashes.
Other Sporting Examples
Perhaps unsurprisingly, father and son taking to the field at the same time is very uncommon, which makes the feat of Bronny and King James even more impressive. Across many sports there are examples of brothers doing battle but the age gap means it really is vanishingly rare at elite level for different generations to play together.
Graham and Damon Hill (F1)
Whilst a parent and their child may (relatively) often achieve great things in the same sport, for example Graham Hill and Damon Hill both won the F1 World Championship, we have to return to US sport for our final example of a high-level father and son player-pairing.
Gordie Howe & Sons (Hockey)
Canadian Gordie Howe’s nickname, Mr Hockey, gives you a clue as to just how good he was. Considered one of the greatest ice hockey players ever, Howe held the records for most goals, most points and most assists in the NHL when he retired. The legendary Wayne Gretzky went on to break all of those records but Howe, a 23-time NHL All-Star, remains one of the best of the best.
Howe played alongside not one, but two of his sons, making him special even on this very short list of parent-child combos. He didn’t play a great deal with either Marty or Mark, the former having a reasonably limited career, but Mark joined his father in making it into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gordie and Mark played many times together for the Hartford Whalers during the 1979/80 NHL season.