Bronny James: Misplaced Talent

Bronny James. If you watch basketball or know someone who does, you’ve probably heard his name recently. But why? Is it because of his stellar performance as a rookie? Was he involved in some controversy? Or is it simply because his dad is LeBron James? I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. The real reason that he has been talked about so much this season is because of his absolutely abysmal performance on the court for the Los Angeles Lakers both during the regular and summer leagues. From his low numbers in every stat, his small amount of play time, and the fans and media berating him online, he just can’t seem to catch a break. But, is all this hate warranted? Sure, James has had an exceptionally poor performance in the NBA, but what about in his high school career and time in the G-League(The NBA’s developmental league?) So let’s talk about it. Is Bronny James one of the worst players to grace the NBA or maybe, just maybe, is he a case of misplaced talent.

Now let’s get the obvious out of the way and allow me to say for the millionth time that Bronny James not only as a Los Angeles Laker, but simply as a NBA player has to be one of the worst out there right now. He gets put on the court for incredibly short amounts of time due to him not contributing much, like in he was in a game for four minutes and all he did was miss a singular shot(January 23rd against the Boston Celtic); and Everytime he does okay stats wise is in a game where they end up losing. An example of this would be in the Lakers game on March 20th against the Milwaukee Bucks where he put up a record 17 points. 

While this was a good record for James, the Lakers ended up losing that game by 29 POINTS! If you don’t know how basketball works in simple terms that’s bad. That’s very bad. He’s also had games where he has done nothing. I don’t mean this as he hasn’t scored or he hasn’t done this or that. I mean that he has games where he has actually done nothing. No points scored, no shots taken, no rebounds, no assists, blocks, steals. He doesn’t even have any turnovers. While this has happened multiple times I’ll admit that in some of these games he was only in for a minute or two but that’s awful in its own right.

So yes, in the NBA Bronny James’ performance has been downright horrendous but it makes you wonder, is he even good at basketball? I mean he had to be at least okay for the Lakers to pay him 1.157 million dollars to be on their roster? Well, if you look past the NBA and into other parts of his basketball career you’ll see a different Bronny James. James went to Sierra Canyon High in Chatsworth California where he made quite the name for himself. According to the USC Trojans website, in his senior year he averaged 13.8 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists. He was also ranked as the No. 19 overall recruit in the 2023 recruiting class. Hell, he was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American and was selected to play for Team USA in the Nike Hoop Summit the same year. James had an incredible high school career and with him being in college for only one year before going off to the NBA so he definitely has something going for him. Moving back to more recent times James hasn’t only been playing in NBA games. As said earlier he has also been playing in the G-League and he’s doing pretty good down there. With averages of 21.9 points per game, 5.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game it’s night and day compared to what he does in the regular NBA.

But, when looking at recruits it’s important not only to look at the stats. You also need to pay attention to how they play on the court. In the ESPN article “‘Set up for failure’: What lies ahead for Bronny James and the Los Angeles Laker” by Baxter Holmes(a Senior Writer for ESPN) interviewed a veteran scout in the league who had this to say about James’ performance. “Bronny was humble,  appeared to be coachable, played unselfishly; that he had the reputation of having a strong work ethic and a high basketball IQ, that he was well-built physically and a good athlete. It noted Bronny played hard, played the right way, that he was a good teammate, that he cared and had great character. That he loved the game.” But, something that he didn’t say was that James was ready for the draft. The scout said that James lacked in the talent department and that he wasn’t ready for the NBA; he could be later, but just not now. Another factor that has to be taken into account is Bronny James’ medical history. On July 24, 2023, during his college season with USC, James was hospitalized after going into cardiac arrest during practice. This hospitalization led to them discovering that James had a congenital heart defect. He then went through surgery to help fix it which affected his performance during what he had left of his freshman season meaning that “any evaluation by NBA officials was incomplete.”

All this information leaves us with one question. How did Bronny James even get drafted and if you think about it for a solid five seconds then it becomes easy to figure out why. His dad is LeBron James. Simple as that. He even got drafted to the same team. And no matter if you argue that LeBron James specifically put something in his contract for them to draft Bronny or not it is no debate that he is the reason that he is here in the NBA. I mean if you were one of if not the greatest player to ever play a sport and you kid played THE SAME SPORT, all eyes are on them whether they like it or not. That same phenomenon happens with (Bronny)James when he plays, there has, there is, and there will be coverage. Honestly, that’s probably the biggest thing that Bronny brings to the Lakers, even more media coverage.

At the end of the day though we came here to ask a question,  is Bronny James one of the worst players to grace the NBA or is he a case of misplaced talent. Well, after this analysis I have come to the conclusion that Bronny James is definitely a case of misplaced talent. That means that there is no reason that he should be competing in the NBA on any level. In the simplest terms, he’s just not ready. While I do believe that in the future he could become a great(or at least just good) NBA player in the future, James chose to rush to the finish line instead of staying in college to develop his skills. In short, you shoulda stayed in school kid!