Charles Barkley believes how the Lakers are handling Bronny James is ‘stupid’

Charles Barkley believes how the Lakers are handling Bronny James is ‘stupid’

Once the G-League season began in mid-November, Los Angeles Lakers rookie second-round pick Bronny James was understandably sent down to play with South Bay. Though it came with a caveat: It was reported earlier this month that the 20-year-old guard will only play in the team’s home games.

Hall of Famer Charles Barkley voiced his opinion, criticizing the Lakers’ handling of him thus far.

“This thing where he’s only gonna play home games. It’s stupid, it’s not fair to him,” Barkley said on a recent appearance on The Bettor Angle. “It’s not fair to the team. Can you imagine the coach of that team? You come off a road trip and you have a player you haven’t seen in a week or two. And then you probably feel like you gotta play him. I don’t think they are doing Bronny any favors. They have just handled this thing very bad. It’s a bad look for the Lakers. I really like everything LeBron has done. But it’s a bad look for him [too], in my opinion.”

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James has only appeared in 16 minutes across six games this season, totaling just four points (1-6 FG) with one rebound, two assists and one steal. He’s only played barely 500 minutes of basketball since high school, suffering a life-threatening health scare in the summer of 2023 that threw off his entire freshman season at USC.

It’s clear that the Lakers have a plan for him and believe this course of action is best suited for his specific development. I understand that, and I also understand that not all players develop the same while not all growth is linear.

We also see players get called up and demoted from the G-League all the time–perhaps not as often as prospects would in MLB, but enough to acknowledge that it does happen. That said, live-game reps are still crucial for any player’s development, especially one without many live-game reps over the last year-plus. I still don’t understand the motive, and it appears neither does Barkley.

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