Lakers' LeBron and Bronny James Remain the NBA's Highest-Scoring Father-Son Pair
ESPN's updated count has LeBron and Bronny James at 43,738 combined points, 4,331 ahead of Dell and Stephen Curry in second place.
The highest-scoring father-son pair in NBA history wore Lakers purple and gold together, and the lead keeps growing. In its latest regular-season tally, ESPN credits LeBron James with 43,550 career points and Bronny James with 188, for a combined 43,738.
That puts the Jameses 4,331 points clear of the next family on the list, Dell and Stephen Curry. ESPN has Dell at 12,670 points and Stephen at 26,737, for 39,407 combined. LeBron's total by himself is 4,143 points more than both Currys put together, so Bronny's share is a footnote to the record rather than the reason for it.
The order near the top has moved. When the James pairing first took over the top spot, it pushed aside a family with deep Lakers ties: Joe "Jellybean" Bryant and Kobe Bryant. ESPN puts the Bryants at 38,895, with Joe scoring 5,252 over eight seasons and three teams and Kobe scoring all 33,643 of his points for Los Angeles. Since Joe and Kobe are both retired, that number cannot change. Stephen Curry's career is still going, so the Currys passed the Bryants for second place, a moment Underdog NBA noted when it happened. The Currys have kept adding to that total.
The James entry also comes with a first that no point total captures. LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play in the NBA at the same time, let alone together, when the 2024-25 season opened. Bronny scored his first NBA points on Oct. 30, 2024, against Cleveland, his father's old team. The rest of the list includes several well-known families, including the Thompsons, the Waltons, the Sabonises and the Brunsons. None of them gets close to the top two.
No one is going to catch the Jameses soon. Any pair hoping to pass 43,738 would need a son, or a father, putting up totals that only a few players in league history have reached.
What it means for Detroit
The record is a piece of franchise history, but the current Lakers have plenty going on right now. Los Angeles is 8-2 and has won four straight: Toronto 131-125, Miami 138-117, at Sacramento 116-103 and Portland 124-118 on Saturday. The Portland win made up for a 136-129 home loss to the Trail Blazers earlier in the month.
Scoring has carried the team. Over the 10 games the Lakers have averaged 122.0 points and allowed 114.3, a margin of about 7.7 points per game. They have topped 120 points seven times. The exception was a 112-95 loss at Golden State, the only game in which they were held under 100. The defense has been less steady. Four of the last five opponents scored at least 117, and Portland got 118 in the latest win.
The Lakers have been strong at home (5-1) and are 3-1 on the road, with wins at Utah, at the Clippers and at Sacramento. The next test is a road game in Detroit against the Pistons on Sunday, Nov. 8, airing on NBA TV and Spectrum SportsNet. A win would make it five in a row and put Los Angeles at 9-2 as it heads east.
