IS IT OVER FOR LEBRON NOW THAT BRONNY IS OFF TO WHO KNOWS WHERE?

LeBron may decide to leave the Lakers for good, and in the meantime, his son may decide to leave USC for keeps if his cardiac arrest turns out to be something that doesn't allow him to play in the NBA

     When the heart stops, we’re all equals. A dream can become a horror with one phone call on a Monday morning, even when your name is LeBron James and you can have almost anything you desire as an all-time basketball great, a self-made billionaire and an entertainment mogul. It has been his expressed goal for years to play in the NBA someday with his son, LeBron Jr.

     Now, amid tidal waves of shock and sadness, the question is whether Bronny will wear any uniform again. At 18, in yet another reminder that a blood-pumping organ is the overlord of humanity, he is another young victim of cardiac arrest, rushed to intensive care by an ambulance blaring a siren and flashing lights — code three, as it’s known in medical emergence parlance — after losing consciosuness during a USC practice session on a hot day in Los Angeles.

     Like Damar Hamlin, whose heart stopped twice on an NFL field in January, young James has survived his bout with mortality and was in stable condition early Wednesday morning. But those of us who live in southern California immediately flashed back to a gym 13 miles away, at Loyola Marymount University, where another ballyhooed prospect wasn’t so lucky in March of 1990. Hank Gathers, allowed to play with a known heart condition that required medication, was jogging downcourt after completing an alley-oop dunk when he collapsed during a conference tournament game.

     He died at the hospital as one of the greatest players never to reach the NBA. The cause, according to the autopsy, was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — the main pumping chamber of his heart was too thick to pump sufficient blood. The science of cardiology has made dramatic advancements in those 33 years, but Bronny’s dad was old enough to know about Gathers’ death and, in 1993, the death of a young NBA standout, Reggie Lewis, who suffered cardiac death on a basketball court during an offseason practice with the Boston Celtics.

     While the sports world prays for Bronny, it’s will be natural to wonder, if his condition improves, how this devastating moment will impact his future in the sport — and the remaining years of his father’s twilight. As it was, LeBron dropped a retirement hint after the Lakers were swept by eventual league champion Denver in the Western Conference finals, and it took a series of impressive front-office moves to placate him during the ESPY Awards show. But now, his son has to recuperate and recover. Will another season of basketball, as he turns 39 in December, really interest him at this point? Will he want to be in Utah on a winter night’s, or in Charlotte during a six-game Eastern swing when his son is dealing with the nightmare of a fraught future?

     It would be perfectly understandable if LeBron retired. What more is there to accomplish when his son needs him? Maybe he takes years off and takes up the Saudis on a blockbuster offer to play an exhibition series. But to comeback now, for another 82-game season when the Lakers aren’t the favorites to win, might not fit his new objectives in life.

     Hamlin is back with the Bills. Will he make the team? “He’s going to attack it like he has everything else in his life,” Hamlin’s agent, Ira Turner, said. “You can’t discount the fact this guy was a starter last year for a significant number of games. With that said, you have to attack every training camp like you’re fighting for a job, and that should be the case whether you’re going into year three or year eight. His approach is going to be just that.”

     “All the support you’re getting off the field,” former Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still said, “doesn’t help you make the 53-man roster.”

     For now, we wait to see where James will be. Is he finished? It wouldn’t shock me.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.