The 18-year-old son of basketball legend LeBron James is out of intensive care, after being admitted for cardiac arrest earlier this week.

LeBron ‘Bronny’ James Jr, James’ eldest son and basketball player with the University of Southern California’s Trojans, was taking part in a practice when he went into cardiac arrest on Monday morning (local time).

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel responded to the medical emergency call shortly before 9.30am at the Trojan’s home arena, Galen Centre.

A family spokesman said medical staff treated James Jr onsite at the Galen Centre before he was taken to a hospital and admitted into the intensive care unit.

James Jr is now in a stable condition after leaving ICU on Tuesday.

Tweet from @curryhistory30

The spokesman said the James family asked for respect and privacy, and would update the media when there was more information.

“Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU,” they said.

“LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.”

Star in the making

James Jr announced his commitment to the Trojans program in May.

This means he is taking a slightly different path to his star father, who never played college basketball and instead went straight from high school to the NBA draft in 2003.

The NBA draft raised its age limit in 2005 from 18 to 19 and decreed picks should be one-year removed from high school graduation, meaning James’ pathway is no longer possible for most young hopefuls.

Bronny James was all smiles when announcing his college pick in May. Photo: Instagram/@bronny

James – who is heading into his 20th NBA season – has been clear he hopes to one day share the professional court with his son.

String of bad luck

This is the second year in a row where a Trojans player has suffered a cardiac arrest during training; in July 2022, Vincent Iwuchukwu collapsed during a workout.

USC training staff used a defibrillator and administered CPR before an ambulance arrived, and Iwuchukwu later had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placed in his chest to regulate his heart rate.

After recovery and training, he was able to make his debut playing for USC in January this year.

Anti-vaxxers pounce

As news broke of James Jr’s medical emergency, anti-vaccination advocates started pointing the finger at COVID vaccines.

Twitter owner Elon Musk was one of the most high-profile cases, asserting vaccine-induced myocarditis could be behind James Jr’s cardiac arrest.

Tweet from @elonmusk

Mr Musk’s post drew a “community notes” fact-check that noted the risk of myocarditis, a rare condition involving the inflammation of a layer of the heart’s wall, is significantly higher after a COVID infection than after  a vaccine. That fact check was later removed.

But he was not the only one to link the incident to COVID jabs.

Several social media users outright blamed the vaccinations – despite no further information about the teenager’s medical event, health history or vaccination status being made public.

Others outlined their exasperation with the anti-vaccine agenda.

“For antivaxxers, it doesn’t matter what actually happened to Bronny James. They will use his collapse regardless,” one Twitter user wrote.