A former teammate of LeBron James from his time with the Miami Heat reportedly will offer his advice to James’ son Bronny after he collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest during a workout on Monday.
The younger James is now in stable condition and no longer in the ICU, but the incident was certainly a scary one.
While the elder James now stars with the Los Angeles Lakers, his former Heat teammate Ronny Turiaf told TMZ that he will be there for the younger James “no questions asked.”
“Ronny Turiaf, one of LeBron’s old basketball pals, tells TMZ Sports he’ll be there no questions asked for the teenager,” TMZ wrote.
Turiaf, who played for the Heat, Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves during his 10-year NBA career, underwent open heart surgery in 2005.
“If Bronny ever wants to talk, I’m sure that I’ll be more than happy to talk to him,” Turiaf said on Tuesday. “If at any given time he wants to talk, I’m always available.”
Turiaf was able to fully recover from his surgery to continue his NBA career, and he turned it into quite a successful one.
The big man played with the elder James in Miami in the 2011-12 season, helping the Heat win the NBA Finals. For his career, Turiaf averaged 4.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field.
It’s great to see the elder James’ former teammate offering his support to help out the younger James in what is no doubt a scary time in his life.
The younger James committed to the University of Southern California (USC) where he will begin his freshman season this fall. There’s a chance he could be drafted in the 2024 NBA Draft if he plays well enough – and is healthy – in the 2023-24 season.
The younger James has dealt with high expectations because of who his father is, but he’s shown he is more than up to the challenge throughout his high school career.
Hopefully, the younger James will make a full recovery and be able to continue his basketball career, similar to how Turiaf was able to resume his.