EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Although Bronny James tries to stay off all social media, that strategy didn't stop one of his friends from calling him up this week and asking him about LeBron James' thoughts on the Los Angeles Lakers' direction — and what it all might mean for Bronny's future.
“I said, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’" Bronny James said with a grin Wednesday after practice with the Lakers' NBA Summer League team. “I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. There’s a lot of stuff going around that I don’t pay attention to.”
Bronny sounds ready to spend a long, hot summer ducking rumors, pleading ignorance on innuendo and concentrating on the work necessary to become a contributor during his second NBA season with the Lakers.
LeBron James has decided to pick up his $52.6 million player option with the Lakers for his record 23rd NBA season — but his longtime agent, Rich Paul, announced the news with ambiguous comments in which he declared LeBron's desire to compete for a championship this season, even while the Lakers are building for the future around Luka Doncic.
While many NBA observers are interpreting the comments as a prelude to a possible trade if the Lakers aren't an elite team in the fall, Bronny James said he isn't thinking or looking that far ahead. The Lakers took a big step toward contention Wednesday when center Deandre Ayton agreed to sign with them as a free agent, filling their most glaring offseason need.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play together in NBA history last season, but the 20-year-old son of the top scorer in NBA history claims he doesn't know what the future holds.
“We don’t really talk about that much, but I think when stuff like that does come up, he just tells me to not worry about it, not even pay attention to it,” Bronny said. “Just lock in to what you have going on right now, and that’s what’s going to get me better and keep me focused. I think it’s good that he tells me not to pay attention to that stuff.”
James first played for the Lakers a year ago in the NBA Summer League, and he is returning this month for another run. The Lakers' first game is in front of their famously passionate Vegas fans against No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks in the marquee event of the tournament.
“Last year it was a crazy environment for me to step in and produce right off — being nervous, too,” Bronny said. “I feel like this year I’ll be able to go out and play freely and know what I’m going to go out there and do for me and my teammates. I’m just really excited to be able to play nervous-free.”
Bronny’s focus is on his conditioning and his diet. He has slimmed down to 215 pounds with a bit more work still to go, and he wants to be able to play 10-minute stretches with no fade.
That’s also important for the mental aspect of the game for Bronny, who went into cardiac arrest two years ago during a summer workout at USC.
“I think that side of confidence just comes with time, and being able to go through or endure myself at a longer rate of time,” Bronny said. “Just being able to be out there for longer time, going at it, just coming in every day and pushing myself even more than I did the last day, I think, is really good for me.”
Bronny also reaffirmed his determination to be a defensive stopper, even though he showed an ability to score last season in the G League and during a 17-point performance against the Milwaukee Bucks last March.
“I can’t lose that defensive drive that will get me on the floor,” Bronny said. “There’s going to be guys that can go out and score 15, 20 (points) a game. I’m most likely not going to be that guy right now, but to get myself on the floor, I have to be a defensive menace, and that’s my main focus, getting into that condition this year.”
Bronny won't get a chance to play alongside Adou Thiero in Las Vegas, however. The Lakers' second-round draft pick is still building strength after the left knee injury that bothered him at Arkansas, and while he won't play in Summer League, he is expected to be fully ready for training camp.
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FILE - Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James, left, and forward LeBron James warm up before an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oct. 22, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The party of Kosovo 's Prime Minister Albin Kurti won an early parliamentary election Sunday in the Balkan country by a clear margin, near-complete preliminary results showed.
The Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party won nearly 50% of the ballots, far ahead of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo with 21%, and the Democratic League of Kosovo with nearly 14%, the state election, authorities said after some 96% of the ballots were counted.
The snap ballot on Sunday was scheduled after the Self-Determination party failed to form a government despite also winning the most votes in a Feb. 9 election (is this correct?).
It was not immediately clear whether the Self-Determination party has won 61 seats in the 120-member parliament to be able to rule alone.
The previous postelection stalemate marked the first time Kosovo could not form a government since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a 1998-99 war that ended in a NATO intervention.
Kosovo has not approved a budget for next year, sparking concern over the already poor economy in the country of 2 million people.
Lawmakers also are set to elect a new president in March as current President Vjosa Osmani’s mandate expires in early April. If this fails too, another snap election must be held.
After voting Sunday, Kurti urged Kosovo’s 1.9 million voters to turn out in large numbers to grant “more legitimacy for our institutions.”
“Once the election result is known, we will do our best to constitute a new parliament as soon as possible and to proceed with the election of the new government,” he said.
Turnout was at around 44%, according to the state election authorities.
According to Kosovo’s election laws, 20 parliamentary seats are automatically assigned to ethnic Serb representatives and other minority parties.
Opposition parties have accused Kurti of authoritarianism and of alienating Kosovo’s U.S. and European Union allies since he came to power in 2021.
Lumir Abdixhiku from the Democratic League of Kosovo urged voters to “move away from the gloom, the deadlock and the division that has accompanied us for these years.”
A former political prisoner during Serbia’s rule in Kosovo, the 50-year-old Kurti has taken a tough stand in talks mediated by the European Union on normalizing relations with Belgrade. In response, the EU and the United States imposed punitive measures.
Kurti has promised to buy military equipment to boost security.
Ilmi Deliu, a 71-year-old pensioner from the capital, Pristina, said he hoped the election will bring a change or “we will end up in an abyss.”
“Young people no longer want to live here,” he said.
Tensions with restive ethnic Serbs in the north exploded in clashes in 2023 when scores of NATO-led peacekeepers were injured. In a positive step, ethnic Serb mayors this month took power peacefully there after a municipal vote.
Kurti has also agreed to accept third-country migrants deported from the United States as part of tough anti-immigration measures by the administration of President Donald Trump. One migrant has arrived so far, authorities have told The Associated Press.
Kosovo has one of the poorest economies in Europe. It is one of the six Western Balkan countries striving to eventually join the EU, but both Kosovo and Serbia have been told they must first normalize relations.
A man folds his ballot prior to voting in early parliamentary election in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
A couple cast their votes in early parliamentary election in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Voters fill their ballots behind voting booths for early parliamentary election in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Kosovo's acting prime minister and leader of VeteVendosje political party Albin Kurti casts his ballot in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Supporters of Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista prepare to go at a polling station and cast their ballots in an early parliamentary election in the northern Serb-dominated part of ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)
A voter arrives at a polling station in an early parliamentary election in the northern Serb-dominated part of ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)
A voter prepares her ballot at a polling station in an early parliamentary election in the northern Serb-dominated part of ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)
People walk past a giant banner of the leader of VV (Selfdetermination) political party Albin Kurti, in the capital Pristina on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
People waiting in the iluminated bus station with banners of LDK (Democratic League of Kosovo) leader Lumir Abdixhiku in capital Pristina on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
