The Los Angeles Lakers selected LeBron James’ oldest son Bronny James with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft was immediately met with a lot of criticism as many people didn’t feel he was deserving.
Bronny was viewed as a pro prospect coming out of high school but after having a scary cardiac arrest incident, he wasn’t able to play much in his lone season at USC.
With James’ pro career getting off to a slow start in Summer League, preseason and the garbage time NBA minutes he has played, the criticism of the Lakers’ pick has only grown louder.
To Bronny’s credit though, his focus has been on getting better as a player during his rookie season and he has done exactly that. The people still criticizing him being drafted have not watched his G League games as the 20-year-old is averaging 20.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting 36.1% from deep in nine regular season games with the South Bay Lakers.
In an interview with Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Bronny revealed that he hears all of the noise surrounding him and is using it as fuel:
“My first thought about everything is I always try to just let it go through one ear and out the other, put my head down and come to work and be positive every day,” Bronny said. “But sometimes it just, it fuels me a little bit. I see everything that people are saying, and people think, like, I’m a f—— robot, like I don’t have any feelings or emotions.
“But I just take that and use it as fuel for me to go out, wake up every day and get to the gym early, get my extra work in, watch my extra film every day, get better every day,” Bronny continued. “That’s what Rob wants me to do as a young guy, coming in, playing in the G League and learning from far on the bench watching the Lakers play.”
The main thing Bronny is trying to prove to the doubters is that he can produce consistently:
“I saw consistency coming (before that Cleveland trip), and that’s like the biggest thing I’ve been criticized about for a minute, just being consistent as a player,” Bronny said. “I started to see that, and it kind of drove you to (consider that), well, maybe these people don’t think that I could be consistent as a player, be a good player, produce as a player. So just seeing those numbers and seeing myself on film, I believed in myself more, and that boosted my confidence. That little Cleveland stretch definitely sparked a little something.”
For someone who was drafted in the second round after one college season, Bronny’s career is right on track with his peers. He has struggled in his limited NBA minutes, as could be expected, but has shown serious strides in the G League.
If James continues putting his head down and working, as he surely will, then eventually improving to the point where he is an NBA rotation player is certainly not out of the question.
Bronny James trying to stay ‘low-key’
The discourse surrounding Bronny James and LeBron has been very loud and while the former is using it as fuel, he isn’t getting involved in any of the talks.
“I always try to stay as low-key as I can, whether that’s media or everything really, living life. But just putting in the work behind the scenes I feel like has been really good for me. I worked all summer before the draft and I’m still working right now. I can see improvement, it’s been going well for me.”
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