Bronny James didn't earn his NBA career, but Lebron has more than earned a season with his son

When Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped 50 points in Game 6 of the 2021 NBA Finals to close out the Phoenix Suns, his older brother Thanasis was right there to celebrate with him. Not in the stands like Nikola Jokic’s lovable Serbian crew, but on the bench, having played one minute and 33 seconds in the series. 

Even Kostas Antetokounmpo won an NBA title with the 2020 Lakers who were hoping to eventually court Giannis out to LA. So, when Los Angeles drafted LeBron James Jr. with the No. 55 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, it wasn’t the first time a star player in the NBA got his way. 

LeBron James Sr. wanted to play with his son, and now entering his age 39-40 season he has the chance. Coming off suffering a cardiac arrest last summer, Bronny James struggled in his one season at USC, and the 6-foot-1 guard’s resume doesn’t measure up to the other prospects in his draft class. There’s no way around it, nepotism got Bronny James drafted. On his own merits, he doesn’t deserve this, but LeBron unequivocally does. 

LeBron James entered the NBA at 19 years old with greater expectations than any player in the league’s history. Yet, somehow, he didn’t just live up to them he surpassed every one and entered a stratosphere of legend that only Michael Jordan had ever occupied. Next season will be his 22nd year in the NBA, a level of longevity on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone achieved, though neither could have conceived of averaging 25/8/7 that late into their career. 

Still, for all his greatness, the Lakers aren’t much of a factor in the championship conversation. Young stars like Giannis, Jokic, Luka Doncic, and even the Celtics loaded roster have surpassed LeBron and Anthony Davis. So, in classic Lakers fashion, the Buss family has decided to celebrate their aging star, the way they did with Kobe Bryant at the end of his career, bestowing a 2-year $48.5 million contract upon him coming off a torn Achilles. 

In many ways that contract sent the organization into a spiral that only LeBron could pull it out of. So, now it’s time to thank LeBron for the title he added to the rafters of Crypto.com Arena, and at least it’s with a second-round pick who will be the 13th-man on the roster, not a salary cap crippling contract that will plunge the team into the depths of the draft lottery and the temporary grasp of the Ball family. 

In the NBA, late second-round picks rarely pan out. Long-time Spurs backup point guard Patty Mills who was drafted 55th overall by Portland in 2009 is the biggest success story from that specific selection. The first-round hype with Bronny James was never real, the league valued him as an undrafted free agent and let him slip right to the Lakers, so for all the hype and accompanying vitriol, no harm, no foul. 

Teams have done a lot worse late in the draft than selecting a player who will keep their generational superstar happy in the waning years of his career. If Giannis’s brother can play in the NBA for six seasons without a meaningful on-court moment simply because Milwaukee is terrified of Giannis leaving in free agency, then LeBron can get a season with his son in LA. 

Sure, there are other players like Jalen Bridges from Baylor, Isaac Jones from Washington State, or even fan-favorite DJ Burns who carried NC State to the Final Four, who were obviously more deserving of hearing their name called as an NBA Draft pick, but from its inception, the league has never been about fairness. 

The NBA is a star-driven league and LeBron, when he left Cleveland for Miami in 2010 was one of the first to truly leverage the power of superstardom. This is just an extension of that, and when compared to players like James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant repeatedly demanding trades, blowing up the teams they chose to join, and abandoning the fanbase that so often rushed to their defense, it’s a much less harmful one. 

So yeah, Bronny James didn’t quite earn his shot in the NBA yet, but LeBron James has earned everything, including his team “wasting” a late second-round pick to make LeBron and Bronny the first father-son duo in NBA history.