Streetball legend Grayson Boucher, aka The Professor, never made it to the NBA, but he believes things would have turned out differently if he had burst onto the scene today. The 5’10” Boucher, who first made a name for himself on the AND1 Mixtape Tour, recently sat down for a Q&A with HoopsHype, where he brought up Bronny James when explaining why he’d have a better chance of getting to today’s NBA.
“I also think today’s basketball business is much more entrepreneurial, like just in general it’s much more open-minded and seizing all opportunities,” Boucher said. “I mean to think today, Bronny James can make the NBA, just a different time. Bronny’s not making the NBA in the 90s, whether he’s the son of LeBron or not; it’s just not happening.
“Because look, if that’s the case, Michael Jordan’s kids should have been in the NBA,” Boucher continued. “They were as good as Bronny; at least one of them was probably better than Bronny. So, even Jordan’s kids couldn’t make it. But nowadays, it’s different. They go where the dollars are, marketability.
“When you think of AND1 and how popular it was, if it were like today, they probably would have had us in the league somehow, if anything, just to sell tickets,” Boucher added.
There is a lot to take in here. Let’s start with Michael Jordan’s sons. Both Jeffrey Jordan and Marcus Jordan played at the high school and college levels, but they weren’t exactly superstars.
Marcus was the better player of the two and actually made the All-Conference USA Second Team in 2010 during his time at the University of Central Florida. He opted against playing his senior season, though, after UCF was handed a one-year postseason ban in 2012. Marcus took classes, but did not play.
Jeffrey, who began his college career at the University of Illinois, joined Marcus at UCF in 2010. They’d play together, but months before his younger brother quit the team, he did so as well. Jeffrey cited personal reasons when explaining his decision in January 2012.
It’s actually unclear if Marcus or Jeffrey was interested in going to the NBA by the time their college careers ended, even with their father being the owner of the then-Charlotte Bobcats. They didn’t play professionally anywhere and got into business instead.
NBA teams back then didn’t really have any interest in bringing in Marcus or Jeffrey, but would things have been different today? Boucher points to the marketing factor, but it’s still doubtful. Shareef O’Neal, son of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, went undrafted in 2022 and would only end up playing in the G League.
The name alone isn’t enough. You have to be a good-enough player ultimately to get minutes and sell those tickets.
Now, let’s turn to Bronny, son of LeBron James. That last name wouldn’t have been enough for him to get in either, but there is one big difference between him and the rest.
LeBron is still playing in the NBA, and it’s fair to say the Los Angeles Lakers only selected Bronny with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft to make him happy. Boucher believes this wouldn’t have happened in the 1990s, but it would have. If a player of that caliber wants his son on the team, his son will be on the team.
That said, Bronny was actually a much higher-rated prospect than both Marcus and Jeffrey in high school. He was named a McDonald’s All-American in 2023, and ESPN projected him to be a top 10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Bronny opted to go to the University of Southern California as he looked to make his way to the NBA, but his career trajectory changed on July 24, 2023. He suffered a cardiac arrest at practice, and while it was clear soon enough that his life wasn’t in danger, there were doubts about whether he would be able to play basketball again.
Bronny chose to continue, but wouldn’t end up making a splash at USC. He averaged just 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game in the 2023-24 season. The Lakers still drafting Bronny led to accusations of nepotism, and you wonder how things would have panned out had he never suffered that cardiac arrest.
