With Summer League in the books, the next time the Los Angeles Lakers will hit the floor will be in preseason before the 2024-25 season.
Summer League was a mixed bag for the Lakers, who only managed to win three games between the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League, but the team ended it on a high note with a victory. Los Angeles was able to win their final game against the Chicago Bulls, though it didn’t involve Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, who sat the contest.
Although Knecht was clearly the best player on the Summer League roster, all eyes were on Bronny as he picked up his play as the games went on. Seemingly every time Bronny made a play, the arena would erupt in cheers and he handled the limelight well.
However, it seems that his teammates were irked with all the extra attention the young guard was getting as one of the players aired out his grievances, via Steve Brenner and Damian Burchardt of The Sun:
“I ended up being very frustrated because I was never put in the best situation, or even put in some plays or game plans because they wanted Bronny to show his skills and shine,” he said.
“If you talk to any other player that was part of the roster of the California Classic and the Summer League, most of them would tell you the same thing.
“The tensions were visible, and pretty much we were all thinking about the end of the Summer League to get out of here and focus on our next step in our careers.”
The player also went on to explain that while he didn’t hold anything against Bronny, it affected the chemistry in the locker room:
“That kind of tension didn’t help the group of players to build chemistry,” said the source, who noted they have “nothing against” Bronny.
“And you could feel that there was no unity [between] this group of guys as Bronny was the main guy and the others didn’t feel that it was right, that he deserved that.”
Being LeBron James’ son comes with extra pressure and scrutiny and it sounds like this player wasn’t pleased having to take backseat to him. However, he may only be speaking from his experience as other players like Colin Castleton came away impressed with how Bronny handled the pressure.
Whoever the player was probably was someone who was fighting to land on an NBA roster, but that shouldn’t be held against Bronny who did what he was asked to do on the floor.
Laker’s LeBron James proud of Bronny James for staying focused
While Lakers star LeBron James wasn’t available to watch Bronny play in Summer League, he was proud of him for staying focused.
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