In defense of LeBron James pushing Bronny to the Lakers for his own happiness

The Los Angeles Lakers made history with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, selecting Bronny James out of USC. Bronny is the son of superstar forward LeBron James, who now gets an opportunity to play with his son. This is the first instance of a father-son duo being in the NBA at the same time and both are part of the same organization. Unfortunately, what should’ve been a moment of great celebration for the family turned into a debate about Bronny’s NBA potential, nepotism in the league and how much LeBron influenced the process.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tried to push back on the nepotism narrative, saying it is widespread in the NBA. I would argue it’s not limited to the NBA but it’s interesting to hear Wojnarowski say this a few weeks removed from other story involving the Lakers. This one was about their coaching search, which seemed to be fixated on JJ Redick but suddenly veered towards UConn head coach Dan Hurley. Former ESPN reporter Ethan Strauss has a brilliant piece on the whole saga which is worth checking out but the overall point is similar. No, Wojnarowski isn’t directly related to the Hurleys and he’s established himself as one of the top NBA insiders for some time now. However, he did write a book about Hurley’s father and probably is close with the family, so there’s some conflict of interest. And in the end, Hurley likely used the Lakers to leverage a better deal with UConn. In fact, LA’s rejected offer was also made public through Wojnarowski.

The Lakers went ahead and hired Redick, who has no coaching experience at this level. He was a star at Duke and played in the NBA for 15 seasons. He’s been praised for his knowledge of the game, his analysis for ESPN and other media companies and his insights on a podcast he has with LeBron James. Of course, it’s easy to make a connection to the Lakers through that last bit. For what it’s worth, Redick denies he had a conversation with James about the job and says he will not continue the podcast while he’s the coach.

Let’s come back to the situation with LeBron and Bronny. The Lakers veteran discussed this scenario in 2022 along with a variety of other topics when he was back in Cleveland for the All-Star Game. James, as he’s done from time to time, tried to walk back on his comments and accuse the media of sensationalizing something he himself told a reporter but the point was made. James was going to try to get his son in the league so he could play at least one season with him. That’s probably why he had a player option for the 2024-25 season, in the event Bronny didn’t end up with the Lakers.

LeBron has had to deal with this conversation about how much influence he has over a team’s operations for most of his career. He’s that talented. His basketball IQ is on a level rarely seen. He’s won championships everywhere he’s played and he continues to be the driving force behind the league’s growth. The idea that he should suddenly stop wielding this influence he has when his son is about to embark on a professional basketball career is laughable. No parent should have to do that, even if it means drawing the ire of some others.

This should also be viewed through the lense of Bronny’s cardiac arrest, which the guard suffered last summer. That setback probably impacted his ability to perform, even if he won’t admit it, and potentially stunted his numbers to a larger degree. But there was probably a question of whether Bronny would be able to play basketball at a high level again. If the opportunity for LeBron was there to get his son on the same team, why wouldn’t he take it? Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed for anyone, even for a billionaire. Bronny has been given a clean bill of health and hopefully remains healthy for his career.

For those worried about Bronny’s production, let me take this time to point out that the Bucks have given Thanasis Antetokounmpo a roster spot despite him averaging 0.9 points, 0.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game over 34 contests a year ago. Yes, those are his actual stats. Do you think he’d still be in the league if his last name was Smith, Johnson or Jones? The Bucks have made the decision to retain him if that’s what it takes to keep their star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, happy. The Lakers did the same thing, taking a player with the 55th out of 58 picks. The guys who missed out on getting their name called were likely picked up quickly as undrafted free agents with minimal damage to their paycheck.

If LeBron wanted to, he could’ve said he will play with Bronny no matter where he gets drafted. He could’ve said he would decline his player option and take a lesser contract just to play with his son for one season. Do you think Bronny would’ve fallen to the second round in that scenario? Do you think Bronny would’ve fallen outside the top 10 picks in that scenario? Would any team be faulted for taking Bronny if it meant landing arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport? LeBron was more than capable of pulling such a maneuver and chose not do so. That type of move would’ve drastically impacted paychecks for several prospects, artificially inflated Bronny’s stock and likely made at least one team abandon all its long-term plans to go chase a ring for one season. And oddly enough, that team would likely be applauded for taking what was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If Bronny was a lottery prospect and the Lakers moved up to take him, with Paul telling other teams not to draft him otherwise he’d go play elsewhere, that would be considered an egregious display of power as well. That also didn’t happen.

It’s unfair to question whether LeBron and Rich Paul were right to steer Bronny to the Lakers. What is fair to question is the optics they presented against what actually took place. Here’s Wojnarowski reporting on a conversation he had with Paul regarding Bronny’s draft stock and the possibility of him teaming up with LeBron.

This flies directly in the face of what Myers said about Paul calling other teams to scare them off of taking Bronny. This is one of the few circumstances where, reasonable or not, LeBron could’ve simply owned up to his actions and stated he wanted to play with his son. He already said this two years ago and now there was a good chance for it to happen. There was an attempt to make all this seem like a natural progression of events, which we know it was not.

What good is building up power, influence and prestige over more than two decades if you can’t use it when you want to? LeBron isn’t doing this to gain more wealth. He isn’t doing this to stack the deck for the Lakers as a title contender. He’s doing this for his own happiness and he should be applauded for that. It’s never been explicitly stated that Bronny wanted this outcome but it’s safe to guess he won’t be too upset by it. If he didn’t want this, you can bet LeBron wouldn’t have pushed for this. And as far as this move costing the Lakers, it doesn’t even marginally hurt them. They give up a second-round pick (which teams can buy) to make their star happy with no guaranteed money tied to Bronny.

We’re often told about the Golden Rule: treat others how you would like to be treated. There’s only one Golden Rule in the real world, that the one with the gold makes the rules. LeBron has the gold and he decided to make a rule. Deal with it.