LeBron James‘ farewell season in the NBA is coming soon, and he has made clear his desire for his eldest son, Bronny James, to accompany him on the same team, or at least on the same floor, in this final stretch of his career.
Having just finished his freshman season at USC, Bronny has entered both the NCAA transfer portal and the 2024 NBA Draft.
After their season ended in a 4-1 first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets on April 29, The Athletic reporters Shams Charania, Sam Amick, and Jovan Buha reported that Lakers’ team sources told them the franchise was open to drafting Bronny to fulfill LeBron’s dream of playing with him.
“Makes perfect sense for the Lakers to draft Bronny,” culture commentator Jemele Hill posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “This is the equivalent of the Lakers giving Kobe $50M or so on his way into retirement. It’s why major stars want to play for the Lakers. The franchise values keeping stars happy. LeBron is going to keep fans in the seats as long as he’s there. That’s worth drafting his son.”
When asked about his offseason process, LeBron said it was about family first and then resting until it was time to start preparing for the Olympics.
“In my conversations with Rich Paul, who obviously represents LeBron James, but will also represent Bronny James, the idea of them playing together is not a priority,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on “NBA Today.” “Rich Paul’s goal here in the pre-draft process for Bronny James is to see if there’s the right developmental system, organization[…]that can take a young player like Bronny James, who went five months without playing after his heart episode certainly limited him in his season at USC.
“If he does go in the draft, he’ll very likely would spend next year in the G-League. What Rich Paul said was, if organically somehow, they ended up together, that would be great. But if you look at the Lakers’ draft assets. No. 17? That’s a really important piece for the Lakers that they’ll probably use in a big trade. You’re not going to use it on Bronny James at 17. Then, they have No. 55. He could very well be gone by then.”
