The Los Angeles Lakers had a lot of injuries on Thursday night and relied on rookie Bronny James to have the best night of his NBA career so far.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick relied on the second-round pick for nearly 30 minutes of action against the Bucks. He finished the game with 17 points (7-of-10 FG), 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 block. It was without a doubt the best game of his NBA career thus far.
But it was also a relatively historic accomplishment for the former USC guard. He immediately joined the history books next to Magic Johnson, which is no easy task.
Bronny became the youngest Lakers rookie since Johnson to record at least 17 points and 5 assists while also shooting at least 70 percent from the field in a game.
Johnson did this three times as a 20-year-old rookie during the 1979-80 campaign, per Stathead, but no other Lakers rookie has achieved such a stat line before turning 22. (Others do it at that age include Norm Nixon, Nick Van Exel, and Jordan Clarkson).
Throw in the 3 rebounds and the block, per Stathead, and remove filtering for just rookies. Bronny is the youngest player for the Lakers to achieve that stat line except for Johnson and Brandon Ingram (2018).
He accomplished this feat at a younger age than players including D’Angelo Russell, Kobe Bryant, and Julius Randle.
On the flip side, the oldest player to achieve that stat line in Lakers history was Bronny’s father, LeBron James earlier this year in January.
