LeBron and Savannah James relive Bronny's cardiac arrest in the Netflix documentary

LeBron James was not on the court for one of the most important games for him last season.

It wasn't a Lakers game or even an NBA game.

It was the Dec. 10 game between USC and Long Beach State that his oldest son, Bronny James, made his college debut with the Trojans less than five months after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest.

“Every minute he was running, every minute he was jumping, taking a hit in the chest — it’s just a lot of nerves for sure,” LeBron James said during an interview on the Netflix docuseries “Starting 5.” “For me, the best play of the whole game is when the game ended and he ran away under his own power.”

LeBron and Bronny James are now teammates on the Lakers after Los Angeles selected Bronny with the 55th overall pick in June.

Less than a year earlier, during a Trojans practice on July 25, Bronny James collapsed on the floor of the Galen Center. The family later said the likely cause of his sudden cardiac arrest was an “anatomically and functionally significant congenital heart defect.”

“Kudos to the man above, the entire coaching staff, the training staff and the members of this program,” LeBron James said in the docuseries. “They are the reason Bronny is alive now and smiling and thriving and doing what every 19-year-old should do, and that is the realization of her dream.”

James described the period following the incident as “a tough few months of watching our son go through the things that he was going through personally. I mean, it affected all of us in our household.”

His wife and Bronny's mother, Savannah James, sweat-dropped as they discussed that time on “Starting 5.”

“It was hard,” she said. “I think we processed it differently. I think at the end of the day it was just about us supporting each other and just being super grateful for the outcome.”

“Starting 5” chronicles the 2023-24 season of James and fellow NBA superstars Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.

A significant portion of one episode focuses on Bronny James' first game with USC. The night before, LeBron James helped the Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers 123-109 and win the NBA's first tournament title of the season in Las Vegas. Immediately afterward, James said, he got on a plane to be there for his son.

“I know he had to be nervous as hell because I was nervous as hell,” LeBron James said.

Bronny James said of the docuseries: “There were a lot of butterflies but that's to be expected. Every game it feels pretty much the same.”

The freshman guard recorded four points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 16 minutes during the Trojans' 84-79 overtime loss that certainly felt like a big win for the James family.

“Seeing your child thrive and achieve their dream is one thing,” an emotional LeBron James said. “But seeing your child go through adversity and be able to overcome adversity is another thing. Because you have to imagine that the last time he was on the basketball court playing anything live, he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.”