Skip to main content

Lakers' LeBron James: Bronny's Work and Results Will Do the Talking, Not Mock Drafts


Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

LeBron James is a four-time champion, one of the best basketball players in history and, apparently, not the biggest fan of mock drafts.

The King took to social media Monday to react to a post stating that ESPN removed the younger James from its 2024 mock draft and instead projected him to go to the NBA in 2025 and said, "if y'all don't know he doesn't care what a mock draft says, he just WORKS! Earned Not Given!"

James also said mock drafts don't matter "one bit" and encouraged younger players to keep "striving to be great."

ESPN isn't the only publication that doesn't envision Bronny James being drafted in 2024.

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman did not include the USC guard in his most recent two-round mock draft, which was released Friday.

James is just a freshman for the Trojans and has been a secondary contributor. He is averaging 5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 37.1 percent from the field and 27.5 percent from three-point range for an 11-16 squad.

It should be noted he missed some of the team's summer training and did not debut until more than a month into the season because he was recovering from the cardiac arrest he suffered in July.

If James does stay at USC, he will have a year of college basketball experience under his belt and, presumably, an entire offseason to prepare for the 2024-25 campaign. That should help him be a bigger factor for the Trojans during his sophomore season if he forgoes the NBA.

There has also been no shortage of speculation about LeBron James wanting to play alongside his son in the NBA at some point. The 20-time All-Star has a player option with the Los Angeles Lakers and could choose to exercise it and become a free agent during the same summer as the 2025 NBA draft.

If that is the same offseason that Bronny James chooses to go to the NBA, his father could wait to see what team drafts him and then go there in free agency.

For now, though, the younger James is focused on helping the Trojans improve down the stretch and, if his father is to be believed, not paying attention to any mock drafts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NBA Rumors: LeBron James' Son Bronny Is on Draft Boards of 'Multiple Teams'

Chris Coduto/Getty Images Bronny James' USC team has struggled this season, but that reportedly hasn't stopped the NBA interest in the son of legend LeBron James. "When I talk to people around the league, he's on the draft boards of multiple teams," Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Thursday: Charania noted teams around the league believe he is "further along" on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side, which makes performances like Wednesday's all the more important. The USC freshman finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds while shooting 5-of-11 from the field in one of his best offensive showings of the season in a loss to Arizona. The only game that he scored more points in was a Dec. 30 loss to Oregon State when he finished with 15 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Perhaps most importantly, James played a season-high 30 minutes against the Wildcats on Wedn...

What Happened to the Rivalry Between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? - Bleacher Report

They were two young stars with unique and special abilities on the basketball court. They had recently played in a high-attention scholastic contest against each other. They were both selected in the same draft. The LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony rivalry was supposed to be the best individual rivalry since Magic and Bird. But while the relationship between Bird and Johnson is dramatized in a new Broadway play , Anthony and James will meet for the 15th time in their careers and do so without much fanfare. James and Anthony first met in a USA developmental camp in 2001 . Much like how Johnson raved about Bird after they played together on a college All-Star team playing in an international tournament, James couldn’t stop talking about Anthony. The two squared off in a high school showcase game the following year that pitted the player regarded as the best senior in the country (Anthony) against the one that was the best junior in the country (James), a game Anthony’s team wo...

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 3 recap: In ‘Auditions: Day Three,’ one hopeful was like ‘the LeBron James of dance’

"So You Think You Can Dance" season 18 ended the first stage of the competition on Monday night, March 18, with the last dance hopefuls looking for a spot in the choreography round. So far the bar has been set pretty high by standout performances from dancers representing a variety of dance styles, shapes, sizes and ability levels. So who stood out among the last crop of contestants? Did the show save the best for last? "We've put 25 people through," said judge Allison Holker at the start of the show. She singled out contemporary dancer Braylon Browner and gymnast Dakayla Wilson as standouts from the first two days of auditions. Comfort Fedoke agreed that Wilson is capable of anything a professional choreographer could throw at her. Maksim Chmerkovskiy was especially impressed by contemporary dancer Easton Magliarditi . But "there's so many other things outside of dance that we're also looking at." More from GoldDerby SEE ...