“I feel like the only way to handle the nepotism thing — which definitely gives you massive advantages in this life — is, you will get chances for free, but the chances will not be infinite. So you have to keep working and do a good job. If you do a bad job, the chances will stop.”
I thought of that quote from Maya Hawke — the actress who appeared in “Stranger Things” and many more shows and movies, and who not-so-coincidentally is the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke — while watching Bronny James getting drafted by the Lakers on Thursday. He got his free chance.
Bronny reacts to getting drafted by the Lakers
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 28, 2024
Bronny and Savannah in tears. Means the world to them. ❤️ (via RoccoValenti_/IG) pic.twitter.com/YBR702j1iE
Did Bronny James get drafted because he is the son of LeBron James? Yes.
Did the Lakers draft Bronny in large part to make free-agent-to-be LeBron happy and want to return to Los Angeles? Yes (as much as they might deny it).
Did Rich Paul, Bronny and LeBron’s agent, manipulate the system as best he could to get Bronny to the Lakers, including reportedly telling other teams that if they drafted him, Bronny would play in Australia? Yes, absolutely. (It should be noted that agents steering their players to a specific team have been around as long as there has been a draft, especially in the second round, this wasn’t anything unusual.)
All those “yes” answers have led to a lot of pearl-clutching in some quarters, as if Bronny’s selection at No. 55 threatened the purity of basketball.
That’s laughable.
Bronny didn’t steal this pick from some poor deserving soul — this is pick 55, if some other prospect were good enough they would have been taken with one of the 54 picks before him. (The reality of the NBA draft is few picks after 50 ever meaningfully play in the NBA.)
More importantly, nepotism is as American as apple pie, peanut butter and jelly, and saying you’re Canadian when traveling in Europe so you don’t have to try and explain American politics. From corporate board rooms through political hallways of power and over to Hollywood sets, nepotism is a time-honored tradition in American life.
As Hawke says above, Bronny got his free chance, let’s see what he does with it.
Which will require patience. From the Lakers. From Lakers fans. From LeBron himself.
LeBron’s IG post after Bronny got drafted 🥹 pic.twitter.com/5ab57wRLIu
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) June 28, 2024
Bronny’s NBA career will not be defined by how he plays on July 12 when the Lakers open their Las Vegas Summer League campaign against the Rockets, even though we can promise intense hype around that night. It won’t be defined by the opening night of the NBA season, or whenever he gets his first run in a Lakers uniform.
Bronny’s career will be defined by the next couple of years, the work he puts in when nobody is around, and his growth in his game.
And there needs to be a lot of growth. Bronny is a long way from being NBA ready — even Bronny and Paul own that.
Scouts will first point to his being 6’1”, not having the handles and playmaking skills yet to be a point guard, and not having the shot to be a two guard or wing. Bronny is a plus athlete, has a strong basketball IQ, defends well, and could — after a couple of years of hard work — develop into the kind of player who might be part of an NBA rotation. There’s a path, but one that is long and with a lot of hurdles along the way.
Bronny deserves the chance to see how far along that path he can walk.
He’s just going to do that in a spotlight unlike any other. He will get an NBA contract — a second-round exception or the minimum — and at some point this season, he will be on the court with his father (who is a free agent but will return to the Lakers).
Is playing father and son together a bit of marketing by the Lakers? Yes. Absolutely. And why shouldn’t the Lakers — an entertainment business that happens to play basketball — do exactly the thing that fans are clamoring to see? Make no mistake, fans want to see it, the interest in Bronny through the draft process — in eyeballs, clicks, Google searches and whatever other measurement you use — dwarfed every other player in the class. So the media has given the people what they want, and that’s not going to stop.
Bronny is used to that spotlight, he’s not going to let it distract him from the road ahead.
Which is good — Bronny knows he got his chance, he has to capitalize on it. Because if he doesn’t, those chances will start to go away.
It’s not about how Bronny got his chance, it’s what he does with it that we will remember.
