Bryce James, Strive For Greatness teammates star in Nike ad for LeBron XXI
LeBron James was able to work with his son, Bronny, on a number of endorsement deals over the last year. The freshman at USC worked with his father on a Beats by Dre commercial and signed on to Nike.
Now LeBron James’ youngest son is getting in on the action.
Bryce James and four of his Strive For Greatness AAU teammates are starring in a commercial for the new Lebron XXI. Released on Instagram on Thursday night, the ad shows the athletes jumping up in the air while heavily featuring the “Akoya” sneaker, which pays tribute to the akoya pearl, with its shapes and reflective nature.
Brayden Burries, Jayden Alexander, Bryce Cofield and Elzie Harrington appeared in the ad next to the youngest James. All highly-touted basketball recruits in the class of 2025 based out of California, the five players were able to star in the commercial thanks to The Golden State allowing high school athletes to monetize their publicity rights. It’s unclear if the five were compensated, but they each posted the ad on their Instagram Stories.
“Look at my young boys,” LeBron James posted on Instagram.
With more than 38,000 likes on the Nike Basketball Instagram page, it gives plenty of publicity to the rising junior basketball players. It’s an unprecedented move in the marketing space, featuring five high school athletes.
While each plays for different high school programs in the greater Los Angeles area, they all play on the same AAU team – Strive For Greatness. The group played the 16U EYBL Circuit this summer, making appearances at Peach Jam and the Las Vegas Big Time tournament. LeBron James and Rajon Rondo coached the team at the Peach Jam in July.
The 21st sneaker Nike has released with the NBA star has a cabling system that works with Zoom Air cushioning and a light, low-to-the-ground design, giving athletes agile fluidity and explosiveness without excess weight.
LeBron James helping Nike work with future stars
A four-star recruit in the 2025 class, Bryce James transferred this summer to Sherman Oaks (California) Notre Dame for his junior season. He previously played his first two years of high school ball at Sierra Canyon with his older brother, Bronny. The 6-foot-4, 160-pound shooting guard signed with Klutch Sports for NIL representation last December. As the youngest son of LeBron James, he has plenty of brand appeal along with his 1.9 million social media followers. Ranked No. 72 nationally in the class of 2025, he’s just beginning his college recruitment process. He currently holds one public scholarship offer: Duquesne.
Ranked in the top 30 of the class, Burries already holds offers from Duke, USC, UCLA and Texas, among others. The 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard is a rising junior at Eleanor Roosevelt and averaged more than 20 points and six rebounds per game in EYBL play.
Another four-star recruit, Harrington is the No. 18 overall player in the 2025 class. With offers from UCLA, USC, Arizona State and Harvard, he’s one of the top shooting guards in the nation. At 6-foot-4, 183 pounds he averaged 13.2 points as a freshman for Bellflower (California) St. John’s Bosco during his freshman season. He upped that to an average of 15.5 points in his sophomore season a year ago.
Alexander and Cofield are just starting to see their recruitments warm-up. Both rising juniors at Sierra Canyon, Cofield is ranked by On3 as a three-star prospect.