Bronny James has spoken — if indirectly — and he says he’s got bigger goals than playing puppet at the NBA All-Star game.
“LeBron James and Bronny James were sought out by the league … to participate in the Skills Challenge during All-Star Weekend,” NBA insider Chris Haynes said Thursday, “but I was told that invitation was turned down.”
Bronny was also invited to play with the G-League Rising Stars team, but that offer was declined as well, Haynes reports.
LeBron, 40, and Bronny, 20, would have become the first father-son duo to compete alongside one another in the Skills Competition.
And while that’s history, sure, it’s chump-history compared to that which the Jameses made at the beginning of the season when they became the first father-son duo to share an NBA court.
So, while the elder James will be jet-setting out to the rat-infested Paris of the West to buddy up with the league’s other All-Stars — including the first Knickerbocker starting duo in 50 years — his first-born will be at home. Or, more likely, the gym.
Even before the Lakers selected him in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, the pundits, zealots and online rabble-rousers had been babbling about where Bronny James should be playing and the things Bronny James should be doing.
And yet, in the weeks since he was “relegated” to the G-League, and under the slightly less bright lights of South Bay, the King’s kin has seemed to shut out the noise and focus on, quite improbably, playing good basketball.
The sample size is small — just seven games — but in that span Bronny is averaging 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 26.9 minutes on the floor.
Prorated per a full 48 minute game, those numbers climb to 23.9, 6.1 and 6.9, respectively.
It’s not all golden. A 36.6 percent field goal percentage, including 21.2 percent from beyond the arc, leave much to be desired.
But for a second-round pick with only one season of college ball under his belt, in his first ever professional season, playing with GOAT-sized expectations on his shoulders, those numbers illustrate a step in the right direction — the promise of potential.
NBA All-Star Weekend is what it is. And skipping saves Bronny at least two more flights.
But more than that, it’s a week saved and a week earned. A week that can be spent developing actual skills in an actual gym — not the Chase Center, not on an internationally televised broadcast.
And yes, there are networking opportunities that will be missed, but what’s Bronny really missing out on?
