Report: LeBron James playing with Bronny is ‘not a priority’
The Los Angeles Lakers got eliminated in five games by the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2023-24 postseason Monday evening. With that, there will be plenty of conversation about LeBron James‘ future with the organization, as he will have a $51.4 million player option that he has until June 29 to either opt out of or exercise.
For years, James, who would be entering his 22nd NBA season (!!!) in 2024-25, has made the desire to play with his son, Bronny James, known.
Though according to ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, that may no longer be a priority for James before he decides to hang up the sneakers.
“In my conversations with Rich Paul, who obviously represents LeBron James but will also represent Bronny James, is that the idea of them playing together is not a priority,” Wojnarowski said on ESPN’s NBA Today Tuesday. “It’s not foremost, at least any longer, in LeBron James’ mind.
“Rich Paul’s goal, at least in the pre-draft process for Bronny James, is to see if there’s the right developmental system, organization–a place that can take a young player like Bronny James, who went five months without playing after his heart episode certainly limited him in his season at USC. If he does go in the draft, he would very likely spend next year in the G-League … I don’t get a sense it’s playing much of any role in LeBron James’ decision on next season.”
Wojnarowski also noted that, in all likelihood, James return to the Lakers–it’s just a matter of what the structure of a new deal will look like, should he opt out (which is likely). That’s not new news, since the Lakers will own his bird rights and could give him the most money.
Woj also highlighted the uncertainty of the Lakers, who own the No. 17 and 55 picks in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft, keeping their first-round selection this year as well as not knowing whether or not James would hypothetically fall to them in the second round.
In his lone season at USC, he averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists on 36.6 percent shooting and 26.7 percent from 3-point range. He was not very good in a limited sample, and an anonymous general manager told Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer earlier this month that there’s “probably three rounds’ worth of prospects” better than Bronny in the 2024 Draft class, which isn’t heralded as a good class.
The worst case for Bronny would be to go into a bad situation and be underdeveloped. James was one of the 195 early draft entrants for the 2024 class while still being in the transfer portal. He will have until May 29 to retract his name and still maintain NCAA eligibility. So he will still be able to partake in the NBA Draft Combine–scheduled from May 12-19–where he can measure his draft stock against his peers and gather pre-draft feedback from executives and other evaluators leaguewide.
Perhaps this information coming out suggests that LeBron no longer sees this as a realistic possibility for myriad reasons, even though I’m sure he’d still want to play with Bronny. Whether this comes to fruition over the next 2-3 years is a different question, however.
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