Watch Steve Hartman of Fox Sports Weekends call out ‘sideshow’ Bronny James after his ugly NBA Summer League debut over the weekend, saying the Lakers need to stop this charade of declaring that LeBron’s son ‘earned’ his opportunity to play in the NBA, even though he averaged just 4.8 points on 36.6% shooting as a 6'1" shooting guard on a terrible USC team.
Bronny scored just 4 points in 21 minutes, on 2 of 9 shooting in a 14-point loss to the Kings, and finished with a -15 plus/minus while he was on the floor. He also was embarrassingly crossed-up on defense by a Kings guard Adonis Arms, and lost his balance before Arms connected on a deep jump shot just inside the three-point line.
Check out the segment above as Hartman rips Bronny as a guy who ‘can’t shoot’ and ‘can’t play defense’, and says he had a friend who announced Bronny’s high school games who told him that Bronny was the fourth-best player on the team even in high school.
Steve Hartman: “Bronny James right now does not belong anywhere near the NBA. He's not anywhere near talented enough to actually have a position in the NBA, and have an NBA contract. The thing that really bothered me at the press conference introducing him and Knecht as the new rookies on this Lakers team was the insistence on the Laker organization – namely one Rob Pelinka -- to say he's ‘earned’ this. I’m like ‘STOP. JUST STOP RIGHT THERE.’ The ONLY reason that Bronny James is a Laker is because his father wants him to be a Laker. Just say it. Don't pretend like ‘WELL, HE EARNED THIS!’... He didn't earn anything. There are literally THOUSANDS of college basketball players that have very similar numbers to Bronny James and none of them would ever in a million years get a sniff of the NBA. The only reason Bronny James has a contract with the Lakers is his father. Just say it for what it is.
This charade; I mean, just call it for what it is, it's a sideshow. It will be ‘history’, it'll be the first father/son ever to play on the same team, but the idea that Bronny James ‘earned’ this, or he ‘belongs’? He doesn't, and we're seeing it in full scale in this Summer League game. Not only can't he shoot, he can't play defense. Like, he's on the ground. They're doing crossovers and literally putting him on the seat of his pants.
I remember I had a friend of mine who actually announced his high school games. I remember a couple of years ago asking him to give me the insight, ‘How good is Bronny?’... He goes ‘How good is Bronny? He’s probably the fourth-best player on this team.’ So he was the fourth-best player on his high school team.
I'm not blaming the kid, I'm not. He has a dream to play. A lot of kids have the dream to play in the NBA, and 99.999% of them will never get that opportunity. He's getting the opportunity for only one reason and that's his father. Period.”
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