BOSTON — Lakers star LeBron James took in his son’s high school game in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Monday afternoon before returning to Boston to face the Celtics.
“It’s truly a blessing, and I didn’t mind going down to Springfield to check the game out,” James said after the Celtics beat the Lakers 139-107. “The only bad thing is I took two L’s. The James gang took two L’s today. But there’s always better days.”
During the high school game, a fan sitting in one of the first few rows was seen throwing something at Bronny James as he waited to inbound the ball. According to a video retweeted by the elder James, the referee noticed and hesitated before resuming the game.
“I didn’t see it until I got here, actually. I was on the complete opposite end of the floor,” James said at his locker in the TD Garden. “I did see the referee stop the game or stop the inbounds and the cop go (up into the stands), but I didn’t know what happened until the video evidence was showed to me when I got here.”
James retweeted the video and added the message: “Hating has no age limit! #JamesGang is build for it and well equipped.”
“It’s just disrespectful,” James said. “And it was a little kid, too. I don’t know how old that little kid was. I don’t know if he learned that on his own, or he learned it at home.”
James had 15 points and 13 assists for the Lakers in their worst loss of the season. Asked if traveling about 90 miles on a game day affected his pregame routine, he said: “I’d break every routine in my life for my family.”
“My routine was broken today, but I could care less about it if I was seeing my family, my wife and my daughter and my kids,” he said. “It was a unique opportunity to see my son live, play that close to where I’m at. So, I could care less about, this right here, is secondary when it comes to my family.”
James reportedly took a helicopter instead of a 90-mile drive each way to Springfield, the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, for the HoopHall Classic. But asked how he beat the traffic, James said: “I walked.”