When LeBron James once needed someone to keep an eye on his older son, Bronny, he turned to former NBA player Gilbert Arenas. On his recent appearance on Podcast P, Arenas revealed LeBron asked him to check out how his son was playing.
“He [LeBron] hit me in the DM’s,” Arenas stated. “Said, ‘Yo, my son gonna be working out with Dribble2Much, can you put eyes on him?’ He said, ‘I’m a little worried. He’s in 8th grade, getting ready to go 9th.’ I said, ‘I bet.'”
Arenas went to watch Bronny and was impressed by what he saw.
“Went there, watching him,” Arenas continued. “I hit him back and I said, ‘Yo, y’all probably got the same speed, probably got the same passing skills, IQ damn near the same. At this age, he probably jumps a little bit higher, probably a little bit stronger. He can definitely shoot better and dribble better than you.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s right.’ So he was like, ‘Yo, can you train him?'”
Arenas had no issues with that and took Bronny to UCLA.
“Take him down to UCLA, putting him through the work, right? And then I had another kid with me, Sky Clark, who goes to Louisville right now,” Arenas said. “Sky was a lot better. They’re playing one on one. I got my son in there with them. My son was young, right? Bronny getting, you know he’s getting beat on.”
Disappointed by what he was seeing from the teenager, Arenas called him out, which seemed to light a fire under Bronny.
“I was like, ‘Hey man, stand up for yourself, man.’ And then the look he gave me,” Arenas continued. “Got the ball, came down, Euro’d with the palm, just palmed it like the Kawhi palm. Boom boom. And went to the rim. I’m like, ‘Oh, sh*t.’ And then ran the crew, 5-0’d all of them. Then I called Bron [and said] ‘Yeah, you ain’t got to worry.’”
When co-host Dallas Rutherford asked if Arenas had got a chance to work out with Bryce James, the 42-year-old said he had.
“Very intelligent too,” Arenas said. “Like we’ll do pick and roll splits. And I’m like I’m gonna just mix it up. No matter what we did, he read it perfect every single time. He probably might be the smartest one out of them.”
Gilbert Arenas saw firsthand signs of greatness from Bronny & Bryce James 👀@PrizePicks pic.twitter.com/4P4xNjA6Sy
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) January 22, 2024
The workout with Bryce was a few years ago. Considering he is only 16 years old right now, it is quite impressive how he was able to read the plays to perfection when he was even younger.
Gilbert Arenas Said Bronny Has A Bugatti Engine But Drives Within The Speed Limit
Years later, Arenas is still keeping an eye on Bronny as he plays college basketball at USC. When assessing what he has seen so far, Arenas said Bronny has the Bugatti engine but drives within the speed limit.
“Bronny…he’s a Jrue Holiday, just more athletic,” Arenas said. “If he turns on his tiger, for sure. He just plays the right way. We don’t know what he really is. He has the Bugatti engine, but he wants to drive the speed limit. He don’t want a ticket. ‘I don’t want a ticket.’ That’s how he uses his body.”
Considering Bronny, who is averaging 5.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 0.8 steals per game this season, suffered a cardiac arrest last year, it isn’t surprising that he hasn’t gone all out on the court. As time passes, though, you’d think he’d start to grow more and more comfortable, and be able to go past that speed limit.
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