People in Auburn who were maybe hoping to see LeBron James on Sunday instead booed his son when he stepped out onto the court.

Well done, Jungle.

Fans are going to be fans, and at Auburn the rowdy basketball crowd has a reputation to maintain. The boos for Bronny James were more of a proper welcome to Neville Arena than a sign of disrespect.

For basketball fans who missed Bronny and USC on Sunday, the Trojans are still in Alabama for another game. USC took a short bus ride from Auburn to Montgomery on Sunday. The team was off on Monday and plays at Alabama State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Could LeBron be in Montgomery on Tuesday night? Anything is possible. Tuesday is a travel day for the Lakers before a Wednesday night game against the Bulls in Chicago.

LeBron has a loose connection to Montgomery that a lot of people might not realize. During the pandemic, LeBron helped produce a graduation special for network television that included Montgomery-based rapper Chika. I respected the leadership role that LeBron played during the pandemic so much that I dedicated an entire chapter to it in my book “We Want Bama.”

USC probably wouldn’t be visiting Alabama for non-conference games if not for the recent rise of hoops in the state. Alabama plays at No.4 Arizona on Thursday in another major matchup of Teams Out West vs. Teams Down South.

This is the golden age of college basketball in Alabama. Auburn’s blowout of USC was the Tigers’ second major non-conference victory in three games. It wasn’t surprising either. Auburn basketball’s remarkable rise thanks to coach Bruce Pearl continues to be one of the biggest stories in the sport. Southern Cal didn’t have a chance, and, no, Auburn’s students didn’t wait in line for hours just to see Bronny James. The kids camp out for games all the time in Auburn.

Still, it was special having Bronny in the building after everything he has gone through over the last several months.

Jungle de Pearl swallowed up USC with a 91-75 no-contest kind of rout that has become commonplace for Auburn’s bandbox of an arena. The build-up to the game was anything but ordinary, though. Ticket prices on the secondary market reached over $2,000. It was all to see LeBron James, Jr., in his first high-profile game as a college player.

Bronny isn’t the first player of note to struggle against the Tigers in what has become one of the best environments for a college basketball game in the country. He finished with five points in 14 minutes and USC was outscored by 22 points when he was on the court. The game wasn’t about what Bronny did or didn’t do against Auburn, though. He looked pretty much how you would expect after being away from the court for so long.

The most important takeaway wasn’t Bronny’s rusty game. It was that he can still play basketball at all after his incident. Bronny experienced cardiac arrest during a practice in July and his life was saved thanks to the heroic work of some quick-thinking medical professionals. Every day is a blessing after that, and having Bronny in Alabama before Christmas was a reminder to never take anything for granted.

A spokesperson for the James family said that Bronny suffers from a congenital heart defect. After being cleared by doctors, his brief minutes against the Tigers represented his second game back. He looked pretty good all things considered. Understandably, the Trojans seemed a little disjointed, but USC has the pieces to be a great team by the end of the season. I’m sure that Bronny’s return to form is slower than he would like, but it feels like a miracle that he’s even getting a chance.

“It’s a little unfair to be judging him possession by possession,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “He was out for five months.”

The traveling circus surrounding Bronny is expected. I don’t think anyone remotely familiar with college basketball is judging James Jr. based on these games, though. Auburn guard Aden Holloway had the right perspective when he said it was just good to see Bronny back on the court.

“To do what you love,” Holloway said, “and to be out there.”

Well said.

To be alive after what happened is what truly matters.

As for Bronny’s game, who really knows? His minutes were limited against Auburn. Hopefully he develops into an excellent college player. The great thing about college basketball is that it gives players time to develop while also having the opportunity to earn an education.

My hope for Bronny is that he’s allowed to just be a normal kid in college. Somehow the seriousness of his medical event is getting lost amid comparisons to his father. It’s not surprising, but it’s a little jarring, too.

I covered LeBron as an NBA reporter, so it was something of a career milestone to cover his son against Auburn. It just means that I’ve been around a while at this point.

Hopefully one day I’ll get a chance to cover LeBron’s grandkids, too. Stardom and riches aren’t the greatest achievements of LeBron’s life. Perpetuation is the ultimate legacy for a family that has played such an important and positive role in shaping modern American culture.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”. It’s a love story about wild times, togetherness and rum.