Bronny James getting special treatment from Lakers in G League
Jul 10, 2024; San Francisco, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James Jr. (9) between plays against the Miami Heat during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Bronny James is definitely not being treated like your average NBA G League player.
During an episode this week of “The Hoop Collective,” Brian Windhorst of ESPN made a very interesting revelation about the Lakers guard Bronny, who made his G League debut over the weekend. Windhorst says that the Lakers will only have Bronny playing in home games for their G League team. Bronny won’t be traveling with the South Bay Lakers on the road, essentially making him a part-time G League player.
“He’s only going to play in the South Bay Lakers’ home games,” Windhorst said of Bronny. “He’s only going to kind of be a part-time G League player, and he’s not getting on United Airlines and going to fly to these road games … Obviously, the Lakers are fine with it. They’re doing it.”
The 20-year-old Bronny, who is on a multi-year contract with the Lakers, badly needs the developmental time in the G League. He averaged 0.7 points per game on 16.7 percent shooting over six garbage time appearances for the Lakers before getting assigned to the South Bay Lakers earlier this month.
But the Lakers having Bronny only play in games at the South Bay Lakers’ El Segundo, Calif. home figures to be really detrimental to him. He will lose out on half of the G League games that he can develop his skills in and also will not get the true professional basketball player experience of having to travel, perform on the road, form a bond with teammates, etc.
For Bronny, the son of Lakers superstar LeBron James, nothing about his experience in the pros has been normal and instead has been much more of a spectacle. That will not change while Bronny is in the G League either as he is apparently set to receive some major special treatment by only playing in home games while his teammates go out on the road without him.
H/T NBA Reddit
