LeBron James Jr., the son of NBA star LeBron James, went into cardiac arrest while practicing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Monday and was taken to the hospital for treatment in the intensive care unit, according to a statement from LeBron James’ spokeswoman and his wife, Savannah. The younger James, known as Brony, is now in stable condition and is no longer in the ICU, the statement said.
“LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes,” the statement read.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call for medical assistance at 9:26 a.m. in the 3400 block of Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, at the address of the university’s Galen Center athletic facility, a department spokesman said Tuesday. The department did not disclose who needed medical attention, citing federal policy.
Bronny James, 18, will be a freshman at USC this fall. He is the oldest of three children of Lakers star LeBron James. Bronny James was a four-star recruit and chose USC over Oregon and Ohio State.
The USC men’s basketball program was scheduled to take a 10-day exhibition trip to Greece and Croatia beginning Aug. 5, according to a statement released in May. It was unclear if the team would still make the trip or if James would go.
Cardiac arrest, when the heart stops, is different from a heart attack, which occurs when blood flow to an artery that supplies the heart is blocked. More than 300,000 people a year experience cardiac arrest outside of hospitals.
The survival rate for those suffering cardiac arrest who receive CPR from bystanders is just 11.2 percent. For those who receive immediate defibrillation, survival increases to 41 percent. It was not known what treatment James received.
Brain damage is possible if a person in cardiac arrest goes four to six minutes without CPR and brain death occurs after 10 minutes. Only 8 percent of cardiac arrest survivors present with a good neurologic outcome. Most “have some degree of brain damage,” Monica Sales said, an American Heart Association spokeswoman said in an interview in January.
USC is experienced in handling cardiac emergencies. During a practice at the Galen Center last summer, incoming freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu went into cardiac arrest and was hospitalized. Iwuchukwu returned to play in 14 games for the Trojans last season.
Keyontae Johnson, a budding star at Florida State, went into cardiac arrest during a game in 2020. He eventually recovered and continued his career at Kansas State, where he starred last season on a team that reached the 8th in the NCAA Tournament. Johnson was selected by Oklahoma City in the second round of the NBA draft in June.
Few cardiac events have become more public than Damar Hamlin’s collapse from cardiac arrest during a nationally televised football game last season. Hamlin, who is now trying to restart his career with the Buffalo Bills, posted one message of support for James on Twitter: “Prayers to Bronny & The James family too. Here for you guys, as you’ve been for me my entire process.”
Modrice Wright, the mother of Trojans freshman Kyjani Wright, said she hadn’t spoken to her son since James’ collapse but hoped he and the rest of the team would be okay in the wake of the second such incident. in just over a year.
“The concern doesn’t go away when you witness something like this,” he said. “These children suffer so much. they don’t rest enough and it was hot.”
Researchers at the University of Washington conducted an exhaustive analysis of cardiac deaths in NCAA sports. Dr. Kimberly Harmon, the lead author who is affiliated with the Washington Sports Cardiology Center, said black male college basketball players have a higher risk of sudden cardiac death than other groups of players.
The annual risk of sudden cardiac death in Black Division I basketball players is one in 5,000. Among white players it is one in 16,000. Dr Harmon said she and her colleagues had not found an explanation for the difference.
“We see it time and time again, not only in NCAA players, but also in high school athletes,” he said.
James isn’t the only son of an NBA star to deal with heart problems. Sharef O’Neal, one of Shaquille O’Neal’s sons and James’ friend, underwent open heart surgery in 2018 when he was 18 after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that affected the coronary artery.
Since then, O’Neal has documented his recovery on social media as he worked to return to basketball. O’Neill had to learn how to walk again and spent several months in rehabilitation, according to the American Heart Association.
In an interview on the “Now For Later” podcast this week, O’Neal said that “in 20 years, I just want to be known as that kid who fought back for something that changed his life and made his dreams come true .
“I honestly thought I was never going to play basketball again,” O’Neal said.
Basketball is often an afterthought on USC’s campus, where football dominates. But that was expected to change this season, in part because of the presence of the younger James, who has 7.5 million Instagram followers and would be playing home games within walking distance of the arena where his father stars for the Lakers.
Crowds were expected to follow James, just as they had since the summer before he entered high school, when fans turned from a gym door to a high school recruiting showcase to watch him play against others in his age group.
As he grew and his game developed, James was perceived by college coaches as a complementary player with a high basketball IQ — a guard who was viewed as a contributor but not a star on a team with Final Four aspirations.
His recruitment, however, was largely a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” — and he eventually visited, though not at basketball powers like Duke and Kentucky. Instead, he toured schools where he could play more easily: Oregon, whose benefactor is Phil Knight, founder of Nike, the shoe company that has a strong relationship with the elder James. Ohio State, the school LeBron said he would have attended if asked to go to college before going to the NBA. and his nearby school, USC
The Trojans will also have DJ Rodman, a transfer from Washington State whose basketball father, Dennis, was a pop culture sensation in the 1990s. But it’s more than just a group of basketball stars.
USC should be good enough after adding one of the top freshmen in the country, Isaiah Collier, a point guard from Marietta, Ga. He will partner with Boogie Ellis, the Pac-12’s second leading scorer. center Joshua Morgan, who led the conference in blocks last season; and forward Kobe Johnson, who is the conference’s leading player in steals.
Iwuchukwu, a 7-foot-1 center, is also considered an NBA prospect.
After this season, Bronny James would be eligible for the NBA draft. LeBron James has often said he would like to play on an NBA team with his son and has even hinted that he wants to play with his youngest son Bryce, 16, who attends Campbell Hall School in Los Angeles . LeBron and Savannah James’ daughter, Zhuri, is 8 years old.
LeBron James, 38, led the Lakers to the Western Conference finals last season, his 20th in the NBA In February, he became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who held the title for almost 39 years. .
Livia Albeck-Ripka, Adam Zagoria and Jesus Jiménez contributed to the report.