LOS ANGELES — Smiles abounded when Bronny James walked into the gym for USC’s practice on Thursday, but not much was said. There was no fanfare. There was no raucous applause.
On Thursday morning, a long-awaited statement from a James family spokesperson confirmed the USC freshman had been cleared by doctors for a “full return to basketball,” about a month after father LeBron said they had a “big moment” at the end of November to gauge his son’s progress. The statement went viral, like most everything surrounding the young James does. But his USC teammates, senior DJ Rodman said Thursday, knew he was coming back sooner than the public expected.
“We’re excited,” senior guard Boogie Ellis said. “But we’ll be more excited when he’s actually out there with us, playing next week.”
Yes – playing next week. It’s been all of four months since James collapsed during a USC summer workout with cardiac arrest; all of two months since he’d started rehab after heart surgery. But the path forward has been made crystal-clear: James will have a final evaluation with USC’s staff this week, resume practice next week and “return to games soon after,” according to the spokesperson.
“Honestly, it was a lot sooner than I expected,” Rodman said. “So, I mean, shoot, I’m really happy.”
Coach Andy Enfield echoed the same sentiment – it was about as “quickly as they could’ve hoped” to have James back returning. Assuming all goes to plan over the next week, it will mean James can potentially play a major role for USC down the stretch in conference play, with a month left for James to get re-conditioned and start shaking off the rust in full-contact play before the Trojans hit the Pac-12 portion of their schedule.
“He’s a great athlete, and we don’t anticipate it being that long of a process for him to get back into game shape, get his timing back – timing’s the other issue, just the timing on the offensive end and defensive end, it’ll take a little bit of time,” Enfield said. “But he’s a very smart player, a very talented player, and he’s a great athlete. So we think, we’re hopeful that that’ll be quicker.”
Indeed, James’ strengths, dating to a steady progression and McDonald’s All-American senior season at Sierra Canyon, lied not in explosive scoring but in simple high-IQ basketball. He played with future Division I and pro athletes for four years in high school, developing an understanding of how to play on and off the ball that should make his adjustment to college basketball less rocky.
And Enfield preached patience with James, adding that he expects there will be a minutes restriction upon his return, similar to when current sophomore Vincent Iwuchukwu recovered last year from cardiac arrest. But his presence – another ballhandler who Enfield recruited “not as a luxury,” but as another lead guard – has been sorely missed across a rocky 5-2 start, USC clearly in need of another offensive creator even when Ellis, Kobe Johnson and freshman Isaiah Collier have been healthy.
“We’ve been definitely missing that spark,” Ellis said.
When asked about James’ potential return to play, Enfield echoed a statement he’s repeated often in the last month – “That’s not my decision” – and mentioned it was too early to speculate. Speculation, however, under the spokesperson’s expressed timeline could mean James’ first game could come as soon as Dec. 17 against Auburn; a more likely scenario is a debut in late December at the start of conference play, or when USC is back home to begin January.
“I think everybody is excited for Bronny,” Enfield said. “He has certainly been through a lot, physically and mentally, and he has handled this situation as well as anyone could expect or hope.”