Bronny James had his introductory press conference with the Lakers Tuesday afternoon, where he and No. 17 overall pick Dalton Knecht fielded questions from a group of reporters with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and new head coach JJ Redick sharing the stage with them.
One of the questions asked of Bronny is why he'll be wearing the No. 9 jersey when he suits up for the Lakers next season. It turns out, his inspiration for the jersey number comes from one of his favorite rappers.
"Juice [WRLD] has just been a big part of me keeping calm in situations that I've been through," James said. "Just paying homage to him, especially because he passed. It's a really important thing for me."
Juice WRLD was a Chicago area rapper who died in 2019 at 21 years old after an accidental overdose. The rapper had the numbers "999" tattooed on his arm, and used the numbers frequently in social media posts and in his music. During an interview with MTV News in 2019, he talked about the significance of the numbers to him.
"If you're a person that believes in anything that has to do with the Bible, I think in the last book of the Bible it says that 666 is the mark of the beast. And that's Satan," Juice WRLD said. "999 represents taking whatever hell, whatever bad situation or whatever struggle you're going through and turning it into something positive."
That message seems to have resonated with Bronny, as not only did he choose to wear No. 9 because of Juice WRLD, but he also has "999 LLJW" in his Instagram bio, which stands for "Long Live Juice WRLD."
We'll get to see Bronny suit up in that No. 9 jersey for the first time when he plays in the California Classic Summer League, which begins on July 6. Redick confirmed during the press conference that both James and Knecht will be playing in both the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League throughout July.
