LOS ANGELES — Bronny James doesn’t need any of this.
Doesn’t need the hype or the hate or the hullabaloo. Doesn’t need the challenge or the pressure or even the work.
His dad’s a billionaire; Bronny could lay around all day playing video games if he wanted.
Dude has 8 million followers on Instagram; he could post 30-second clips of his haircare routine and make a fine living as an influencer.
Shoot – to hear actor Maya Hawke and her dad, actor Ethan Hawke, tell it – with that many followers, these days Bronny could basically walk onto a movie set and get a role with a snap of his fingers.
Instead he spent Monday evening in South Bay purple at UCLA Heath Training Facility in El Segundo – where the Lakers practice and the organization’s G League contingent plays its games – getting after it against the bruisers on the Detroit Cruise.
More than 500 fans filled the bleachers to witness the Cruise go into hyperdrive in the second half and run away with a 110-97 victory. It was one of those knock-down, drag-out affairs that make sense in the court of prove-it that is the G League.
I remember Brandon Boston Jr. – another Sierra Canyon High School product who played one mediocre college season before being drafted 51st and then signing for $2.5 million with the Clippers, who were applauded for their foresight in inking him to what was, in 2021, the most guaranteed money for a player drafted in the 50s – telling reporters that playing in the G League was like playing with wolves.
What I kept thinking watching Bronny – the Lakers’ the 55th pick and on a four-year $7.9 million deal – do that dance against Detroit’s G League team on Monday: He definitely needs this, but he definitely doesn’t need it. You know?
Because making it as a professional athlete is hard. And what Bronny, 20, is trying to do, as the son of the probably the greatest basketball player ever, is uniquely hard.
“I have a lot of respect for him, he has to handle a lot of things that I don’t even know what he’s dealing with,” said Cole Swider, Bronny’s sharp-shooting South Bay teammate.
“I mean, there’s not a lot of things that he can he can do that can outshine his name, right? So, like, the day-to-day process that he takes and he approaches the game with is, honestly, inspiring for us.
“Because he could just hang it up, he could make money in so many different ways, and not have to deal with a day-to-day pressure. But he goes out there, he plays, he plays in the G league. He came out on the road with us when they said, ‘Oh, he’s not playing the road with us.’ But, ‘No, no, no, I wanna play.’ All these different things.
“We were in Salt Lake City and there was a guy literally behind the bench the entire game yelling, ‘Bronny! Bronny! Look at me, Bronny!’ I don’t have to deal with that, right?”
On assignment on Monday in El Segundo, it was all love. A “Let’s Go Bron-ny!” chant even broke out after he stopped, popped, drilled a 7-footer and drew a foul to increase what would be a short-lived lead to 68-56.
In 33 minutes on Monday, Bronny finished with 16 points on 5-of-16 shooting, all six of his 3-point attempts going awry. Hounded by a rotation of Cruise guards, he had as many assists as turnovers – four.
(But if you want to compare oranges and mandarins, Detroit’s rookie forward Bobi Klintman, the 37th pick in last year’s NBA draft who was on assignment from the Pistons, finished with four points and five fouls in 20 minutes.)
Afterward, Bronny didn’t beat himself up, sounding like someone who is well-schooled in the ebbs and flows of pro hoops: “I don’t think I responded terribly; some things I’ve got to work on as I get older and put on more weight.”
They’re just not all going to be 30-point efforts like Bronny had against the Valley Suns or the 31 points he dropped on the Rip City Remix. Maybe you caught wind of those performances? Maybe not.
Maybe you knew, going into Monday’s game, that in G League action Bronny was averaging 21.1 points per game on 44.5% shooting, including 39.4% from deep. Also: 5.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Maybe you don’t care; you don’t follow the G League.
Less chance you avoided the video of LeBron James confronting ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith last week in response to the ESPN broadcaster’s rant about the Jameses after Bronny struggled in a 15-minute NBA stint against the Philadelphia 76ers a few weeks ago: “I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this!”
“We know that he’s not ready yet,” Smith went on to say, taking up for “people that are missing out on opportunities, that are busting their tail on other NBA teams and the G League and Europe and everywhere else …” whose fathers, presumably, aren’t in position to pull strings to get their sons on NBA rosters.
So the game isn’t fair. But neither will the game be cheated.
It’s on Bronny, an athletic if relatively small 6-foot-3 guard, to make all those endless rapid-fire, on-court decisions every time he’s on the floor. And to then learn which worked and which didn’t. He’s been good at that, South Bay coach Zach Guthrie said: “He doesn’t tend to make a lot of mistakes twice; that’s a mark of a good pro.”
It’s on Bronny to go out there and bang with dudes who are desperate to make it to the basketball big time. To get his wind up and keep pace, as he told us Monday, with these men playing at double-speed, as if in a hurry to get where they’re trying to get.
And it’s Bronny who’s responsible for the measurable strides he’s made so far in the G League, for the confident flashes he’s shown lately at the NBA level. And for whatever comes next, whether he someday develops into a contributor like, say, Gabe Vincent, who can defend smartly and hit clutch shots – or not.
But, sure, blame or credit LeBron, the dad, for providing his son with such a challenging opportunity. Also for bringing up Bronny in such a high-achieving, hard-working and audacious environment that a young man who wants for nothing might really want it enough to break through as an NBA rotation player at work.
Alternatively, Bronny could totally get away with spending his time lounging around, scrolling through social media and commenting haphazardly on whatever the day’s controversy might be.
Seems he needs more than that, though. Don’t hate it.