Family matters

 Bronny James has been cleared to resume playing basketball at USC, and I'm allowed to feel a trifle queasy about that. When your heart stops beating in the middle of a game, like Bronny's did last summer, my mind immediately (if morbidly) goes to darker places.

Hank Gathers places. Pete Maravich places. Places where a guy's heart quit working while he was playing basketball, and who didn't, like Bronny, recover.

I'm assuming Bronny's been run through every test imaginable to get to this point. I'm also assuming his dad, LeBron James, is OK with this. So I guess if he's not worried, the rest of us shouldn't be.

He is, after all, a man who clearly loves his son, and wouldn't let him risk his life if there was an appreciable risk to it. I know this because the other day he said he'd told his Lakers teammates that if Bronny's first game at USC happens the same day as a Lakers game, he won't be in the lineup. He'll be at his son's game.

"Family comes first," he said.

Some people would agree with that. Some, unquestionably, wouldn't. In fact if you put an ear to the ground firmly enough, you can already hear what they'd say: He's a professional athlete being paid millions of dollars to play for the Lakers. They've made a commitment to him, and he needs to honor that commitment. That's what a professional does.

I understand that reasoning. I just don't agree with it.

I think in this case, LeBron has his priorities screwed on straight, and I applaud him for it. Fact is, he's played in a gazillion NBA games, because the NBA plays a gazillion games every season. There's always gonna be another NBA game; only once will Bronny James play his first collegiate game. 

And so, good on LeBron for recognizing that. And it's a damn near mortal lock the Lakers will recognize it too.

Family first, as LeBron says.