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Despite Bronny James' unremarkable season with the USC Trojans, rumors about the rookie guard's potential upgrade to the NBA in 2024 continue. Some personalities in sports have mentioned that a jump to the big league alongside his father, Lebron James, would be the marketing and sporting move of the year.
Others, however, disagree with the assessment. Former Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Austin Rivers believes that playing alongside his father would hurt Bronny James' development. Two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis would seem to contradict Rivers, recently telling TMZ:
"Your daddy is LeBron James, I think it will do nothing but help him ... You say it'll enable him because your daddy on the team, but like, nah, that s*** different. That's LeBron. LeBron's a coach, a basketball genius and that's his seed ...
"There's a certain type of swag, there's a certain type of s*** that you really didn't get to see as a kid ... Now you there, you get to see your dad's whole layout ... [Bronny] already got the DNA. Now you got the whole layout, the whole trajectory, and the blueprint laid out for you."
Davis pointed out that playing under LeBron as a coach might be troublesome for Bronny, but working with him as a teammate can foster the youngster's development. As the best example of this dynamic, he pointed to Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. in the Seattle Mariners as a successful template for the James duo to follow.
Is Bronny James NBA material?
The only glaring problem with this whole NBA business is that Bronny James doesn't seem to be NBA caliber yet. At the moment, Bronny is averaging 5.8 points, 2.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game. Those numbers are far away from the professional level. It is also important to note that he missed a good chunk of his debut season due to a cardiac arrest incident in July of 2023.
He has excelled at the NIL game, with him currently topping On3's rankings with a valuation of $5.8 million in deals. It is anyone's guess if a team would select the guard just based on his marketing appeal.
Do you think Bronny James is ready for the NBA?
