Bronny James is getting even more special treatment from the Lakers.
LeBron's eldest son, who the Lakers acquired late in the second round of this year's NBA Draft, will only play in G League home games and will not take commercial flights to the South Bay Lakers' road contests, ESPN's Brian Windhorst reports. Reported. On “The Hoop Collective” Podcast.
Windhorst, who has covered LeBron since high school, is not happy about this.
“With what's going on right now, I'm going to put the brakes on the idea that 'everything is fine on the Bronny front.' So, from what I understand, he's only going to play in South Bay Lakers home games. He's like a part-time G League player, he's not going to fly on United Airlines to watch other teams or play road games,'' Windhorst said.
“Honestly, I know he was getting special treatment and nepotism, but that's fine. I don't care. It's normal. Now I think it's actually detrimental to him. I don't like it. I don't know whose idea it was. Obviously the Lakers are doing just fine.
“In this particular instance, I think it's overkill, and I don't think it's going to be good for Bronny, I don't think it's going to be good for the South Bay Lakers, and I don't think it's going to be good for LeBron at this point.”
Bronny, 20, played in the Lakers' first game of the season and made history with his father LeBron, making them the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game. The two briefly shared the court while Bronny played just 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
He has appeared in six of the Lakers' 10 games so far, most recently making a 1-minute, 40-second cameo in Sunday's game against the Raptors. He has a total of four points and averages less than three minutes per game.
Bronny made his G League debut on Saturday against Salt Lake City at the Lakers' practice facility, recording six points, four assists and three rebounds in 31 minutes.
Windhorst said he wished Bronny had stayed at the University of Southern California, where he played one year after suffering a cardiac arrest in July 2023, but the Lakers took him with the 55th pick in the draft. He said there was no problem with the team. He's trying to get more out of LeBron with this move.
He also said there is no problem with Bronny signing a three-year guarantee contract.
“Maybe it was a little bit more than he was worth, but I don't really care,” Windhorst said. “I saw DeAndre Jordan signed to a $40 million contract.” [from the Nets] They're trying to get more out of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. On that scale, this is nothing. ”
However, Bronny has only played a minute or two in an NBA game and hasn't received full G League experience, which could hinder his development.
“I think it would be better if Bronny was playing a G League home game by February or March and was a more developed player,” Windhorst said.
