Bronny James is getting more special treatment from the Lakers.
LeBron’s eldest son, whom the Lakers took late in the second round of this year’s NBA draft, will only be playing in G League home games and won’t be getting on commercial flights for the South Bay Lakers’ road contests, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on “The Hoop Collective” podcast.
This isn’t sitting well with Windhorst, who has covered LeBron since his high school days.
“I’m gonna apply the brakes on my ‘everything is fine on the Bronny front’ with this thing that is now happening, which is that from my understanding, he’s only gonna play in the South Bay Lakers home games, that he’s only gonna kind of be a part-time G League player, and he’s not getting on United Airlines and going to fly and go see these other teams, play in these road games,” Windhorst said.
“Honestly, I know he was getting somewhat special treatment and nepotism, that’s fine. I don’t care. It’s normal. Now, I think it’s actually detrimental to him. I don’t like that. I don’t know whose idea it was. Obviously the Lakers are fine with it, they’re doing it.
“On this particular instance, I think that’s gone too far, and I don’t think that benefits Bronny, I don’t think it benefits the South Bay Lakers and I don’t think it benefits LeBron at that point.”
Bronny, 20, appeared in the Lakers’ first game of the season and made history with his dad LeBron, with the pair becoming the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game. The two briefly shared the court as Bronny played just 2:41.
He’s made spot appearances in six of the Lakers’ 10 games so far, most recently a one-minute, 40-second cameo Sunday against the Raptors. He has four total points and is averaging less than three minutes per game.
Bronny made his G League debut Saturday, recording six points, four assists and three rebounds in 31 minutes in a victory over Salt Lake City at the Lakers’ practice facility.
While Windhorst said he would’ve preferred if Bronny, who played one year at USC after suffering cardiac arrest in July 2023, remained in college, he had no issues with the Lakers taking him with the No. 55 pick in the draft and the team trying to get more out of LeBron with the move.
He also doesn’t have an issue with Bronny getting a three-year guaranteed contract.
“Maybe that was a little bit more than maybe he merited, but I don’t really care,” Windhorst said. “I saw Deandre Jordan get a $40 million contract [from the Nets] to try to get more from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. On that scale, this is nothing.”
But Bronny not getting the full G League experience while playing a minute or two in NBA games could stunt is growth.
“I think it’d be much better if Bronny was a more developed player by February or March by playing in G League home games,” Windhorst said.