Sports

/

ArcaMax

Bill Plaschke: Bronny James didn't ask for the attention, so give him a break

Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Basketball

Bronny handled Tuesday’s show at the Lakers’ training facility smartly and maturely, and thank goodness, because this is a child who is not going to be given much room to grow up.

When he was asked if hanging around his father would make his transition to the NBA easier, he bristled.

“I had my own basketball stuff going on, so I wasn’t really, you know, in my dad’s pocket all day, you know, following him around the Lakers facility,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve had some stories, but ... I don’t know what, you know, exactly is to come.”

What’s to come is madness. Each of his minutes in the summer league will be analyzed as if he’s playing in the NBA Finals. Derisive chants from overserved Las Vegas patrons are likely to be shouted as if he’s a villain.

If he starts the season with the Lakers, he will be hounded until he and his father make history by playing on the court at the same time. And if he doesn’t start the season with the Lakers, G League jokes will abound.

“Everything has been surreal, I’m just trying to take it all in,” Bronny said. “I’m extremely grateful for everything that JJ and Rob have given to me. I’ve just been extremely excited to get to work.”

 

Even that innocuous quote was dissected to death, this time by Redick himself. The minute Bronny mentioned that something was given to him, his new coach rushed to disagree.

“I want to clarify one thing ... which is, Rob and I did not give Bronny anything,” Redick said. “Bronny has earned this, right? ... Bronny has earned this through hard work. And for us, prioritizing player development, we view Bronny as like, Case Study 1, because his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing, there’s a lot to like about his game. And as we sort of build out our player development program holistically, he’s going to have a great opportunity to become an excellent NBA player.”

Even as he defended Bronny’s big league qualifications, Redick sounded like Dodgers manager Dave Roberts talking about a Double-A prospect on the first day of spring training.

There’s no hiding the fact that the kid will probably not be ready for this NBA season. But that’s not his fault. And here’s hoping everyone will chill long enough to let Bronny learn and stop hating long enough to realize that none of this is his fault.

...continued

swipe to next page

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus