LeBron James and his son Bronny became the first father-son duo to play together in NBA history. One would think such a historic personal achievement for James, a testament to the longevity of his career, would be widely celebrated. However, it has also ended up subjecting Bronny to unrealistic comparisons with his father.
Carmelo Anthony’s son Kiyan, who is also a highly rated basketball talent going to Syracuse in the coming NCAA season, went on his father’s podcast with Dylan Harper, the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, who is also the son of NBA legend Ron Harper, i.e, another second-generation basketball player, and they discussed this about Bronny.
“Yeah, I feel like as soon as whoever’s talking tries to connect like both, that’s when it gets messed up. Cause like it’s a new generation, two totally different people, even though that might be your kid, y’all both going through different things. So like Bronny, I kind of felt bad for him cause that’s my guy.”
“So just seeing, he doesn’t speak a lot, he doesn’t. He’s not going to go on the internet and say what he has to say. But like deep down, like behind closed doors, he probably was going through it. Like you seeing this every day, you’re on social media, you can’t even scroll twice without seeing a post with your name on it.”
“He probably talked to his pops about it, but at the end of the day he’s nice at ball, he not like people trying to say he not good or he just there for his pops, I think he’s really nice and I think he really has a chance to you know prosper in the NBA.”
“But they trying to get it to him, for him to get his first year like no it could take a couple years like D was saying it take a couple years before you could even you know start getting situated, start getting settled, and even play your own game so that’s how I feel about it man.”
Assessing Bronny James’ First Year As A Lakers Player
Bronny James only played 27 regular-season games for the Lakers and spent most of the season getting his reps in during the G League. More often than not, he was struggling in the games he played and was thus subject to a lot of criticism due to the standards his father had set.
He averaged 2.3 points in 6.7 minutes played in each of those 27 games. But as the 55th overall pick, any other player who would be getting similar minutes would also have a similar performance. Moreover, Bronny has shown sparks of what he can do with multiple stellar games in the G-League. He averaged 21.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in the 11 regular-season games he played in the G-League. If he gets more minutes for the Lakers, he may actually be useful for the Lakers in the long run.
