PEERING OUT OF a 27th-floor suite inside the Vdara Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas, Bronny James takes in the panoramic view. It's mid-afternoon on July 13. He looks at the surrounding ARIA Resort & Casino grounds, where the Los Angeles Lakers ' young prospects and roster hopefuls are making their temporary home.

He points out Shadow Creek Golf Course on the extended property; then the Bellagio fountains; then the bulbous Las Vegas Sphere, which hosted the Backstreet Boys the night before. "I would go," James says, despite not being born during the pop icons' heyday. "I know their stuff."

Three days earlier, the NBA made James another featured Las Vegas headliner, pitting him and the summer league Lakers against the Dallas Mavericks and their heralded No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg . The Lak

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