TRAGEDY AVERTED
A look back at Bronny James' heart scare through the eyes of some of those who were there
LOS ANGELES >> Five and a half months later, the joy courses through Bronny James' every movement.
Sneakers squeak and music thumps within a sleeping Galen Center this Jan. 3, and James' mouth twists into an as he pulls a jumper from the corner. Lenses watch him, patiently, from the baseline, the ones he can never escape. He corkscrews a bounce pass during a
Opre-game drill with faux razzle. A showman. But only for himself, right now, and no one else.
He leaps, in jest, to fake-contest a shot from fellow USC freshman Isaiah Collier. The arena booms with the bass of Drake and Lil Wayne's “The Motto,” and James starts mouthing the first verse bar-for-bar with a grin, senior teammate
UP NEXT Saturday: UCLA at USC, 5p.m.,
DJ Rodman throwing a goodnatured scoff at him.
How you feel, how you feel, how you feel? 25, sittin' on 25 mil'.
He was free. He is free. And in the sheer normalcy of his demeanor, a 19-year-old bringing a
preschooler-goofing-off-on-monkey-bars vibe to warm-ups and a measured game to his first year of college basketball, it's quietly easy to forget what James has endured.
“I just wanna say I'm thankful for everything,” James said, face devoid of much emotion, after an 84-79 loss to Long Beach State. “Mayo Clinic, everything they helped me with, parents, siblings, supporting me through this hard time in my life . ... Also, my coach, teammates, all my other coaches, they've been with me since the start, and I just want to say I'm thankful for them.”
That was that. And so life moved on.
Hype around his return, once so great that a standing-room