OAKLAND, Calif. — Lonzo Ball began to revere LeBron James when James was a first-year forward with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which would have made Ball about 6 years old at the time. But Ball, as he put it himself in an interview last week, “idolized” James so much, even then, that he had a youth-size replica of one of his jerseys.

All these years later, Ball belongs to the cast of characters — otherwise known as the Los Angeles Lakers — who work alongside James and labor for victories in his mammoth shadow. It still feels a little surreal to Ball, who sits not far from James in the home locker room at Staples Center and absorbs all he can.

“I’ve looked up to him my whole life,” Ball said.

Ball, of course, is no stranger to the spotlight, which has followed him around — often at his father’s invitation — since he was a McDonald’s All-American at Chino Hills High School, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles. It shined on him last season, too, for better but mostly for worse, as he struggled with injuries and growing pains as a first-year point guard in the N.B.A.

But the addition of James this season has brought its own brand of pressure, and it was mounting on Ball, 21, ahead of the Lakers’ annual Christmas Day game, this one a 127-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.