Despite pretty much everyone knowing that this year’s NBA Draft class was the weakest we had seen arguably in the past 20 years, fans are still distraught about how things unfolded.
However, fans and analysts aren’t getting into shouting matches with one another over which French prospect should have gone first overall, most of the discourse regarding this year’s draft has been about the No. 55 pick. With just a few picks remaining in the draft, the Los Angeles Lakers did NBA legend LeBron James a solid, and selected his son, Bronny.
While the former five-star came into his freshman season as a projected top-10 pick, his lone year at USC was severely underwhelming. It didn’t help that he endured a horrendously traumatic instance in the summer, which saw him have a cardiac arrest episode due to what was later revealed to be a congenital heart defect. The scary moment forced him to miss some time, and when he did return it was obvious that his skillset didn’t mix on a team with two ball-dominant shot chuckers. He also struggled offensively when he did have chances to get shots, but struggled to execute.
James finished the year having averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 36% from the field and 26.7% from deep. Following the season, he decided to enter his name into the college basketball transfer portal which led to the belief he would transfer to a mid-major where he could be the focal point and also get more experience.
Is There Too Much Hype Surrounding Bronny James? The “Points in the Paint” crew discusses why media needs to pump the breaks on Bronny James coverage during the NBA Summer League.
Instead, he and his camp decided it was best for him to enter and keep his name in the draft and force their way to the Lakers, while threatening teams that he’d go to Australia if they drafted him. A move that most didn’t think was the right decision for the longevity of his career. Even LeBron’s current Team USA teammate, Kevin Durant, thought that the younger James should have returned to school.
On the most recent episode of Impaulsive (July 9) with Logan Paul and Mike Majlak which appeared to be filmed sometime before the draft and has amassed over 1.5 million viewers, Durant revealed that he felt Bronny should have returned to college.
“Yeah I want to see what he does next,” Durant said when asked if he was following the younger pre-draft James’ journey. “They said he’s coming out… he entered the draft and then he might transfer if he don’t want to stay in the draft and s***. So I think he could use another year at college and see where he at.”
Durant also touched on how surreal it is to soon be playing against the sons of players that he played with or against, citing Carlos Boozer’s twins and the son of Gilbert Arenas all of whom are five-star recruits in their respective classes who could end up being lottery picks.
Had this interview come out prior to the draft, it certainly would have been interesting to see how his comments about Bronny returning to college would go over. It is also worth noting, that Durant’s Phoenix Suns seemed to be the only other team that the James camp would have been okay with taking Bronny, being that they were the only team not named the Lakers to have him in for a workout.
Durant and James are headlining Team USA’s push for a fifth-straight gold medal, while Bronny is looking to get his feet wet in the NBA Summer League.