The Bronny phenom-e-not

Intro

So when I started a blog, Wordpress gave me an option. Monthly or yearly? I looked at that 12 dollars monthly or that 60 dollars yearly option and you know what I said? I was in this for the long run motherfuckers, I was gonna use all of my best thoughts, opinions and experiences to conjure up the perfect blog in a year. In the end, of course I still opted for the monthly option because how many people start a blog and then look at the credit card statement… and say what the fuck was I thinking?? So for at least a month- here we go guys! come along with me for the ride of me trying to start a blog.

For our first piece, I decided to jump on what’s hot right now, and write my own piece about Bronny James, the son of Lebron James, which you already know if you are still reading and haven’t found out that… this is a basketball article. And yes, it is very important to me that I am talking as if there is a million people in the audience because I want to be a blogger, at least for today because this Bronny James, as I will come to call it, phenome- not stuff has been on the top of the old knob for a while now and to see it reach an apex, with Bronny being finally drafted, warrants not only a reaction from me but also a summary of how this happened. I think I have been subconsciously locked into this since Bronny’s first dunk went viral, I found the similarities between him and lebron fascinating but even more so.. the differences. A tale as old as time.. will the son be his father, better, different, objectively worse?

Story:

This story starts, with me being motivated enough to watch Bronny’s first summer league game- which I’m sure was a lot of NBA fans first time watching a summer league game right after work or doing laundry and especially rare in the NBA offseason. The offseason is not only for the players.. but also the fans… where we take a break from the endless saga that is the NBA nowadays(Except if you’re a basketball content creator)- this break being strongly justified by a draft that was not highly anticipated partially due to a lack of any standout player, even taking into account this draft being compared to it’s predecessor having the phenom- Victor Wembenyama go first pick.

With the Bronny James news, this made us, begrudgingly, still have to tune into the most recent legendary sports narrative, that many saw on the horizon and is coming to fruition- which is the evolution of Bronny James, obviously that last name being the reason for the attention.

This article, will take you through what I have noticed about James right off the bat from his first game in summer league and why he is really the opposite of any kind of entertainment or engagement at all, for the simple reason that Bronny James, firstly is gonna be a very different player then his father and despite his name, should not succumb to the binary- bust or not bust culture, since this kid is not phenomenally terrible nor spectacular.

Everyone knows, Bronny’s college career was not great. Perhaps it was playing on the same team as some super highly scouted and talented players(Rob Dillingham) or because of him getting back from a startling cardiac arrest. James averaged just 4 points per game, 2 assists and a steal. Now to bridge this kind of underperforming narrative in college to the start of his NBA career in the summer league game. I think we can assume that for the most part the level of athleticism, skill and experience even in an NBA summer league game is at a higher level to the amount of athleticism that we see in college basketball. And there is a hodgepot of guys reminiscent of the dynamics found at the professional level- guys that played in Europe, maybe have been in the G league for a while. Obviously, taking the structure of college basketball out of the equation and the pressure of being in a higher stake environment like an NCAA tournament, NBA summer league is more reminiscent of the NBA then college basketball, at least in terms of opposition.

Observations:

I noticed firstly in his game that Bronny is incredibly consistent and if not consistent in his output,  he is certainly consistent in his demeanour and approach for a kid his age- sporting a good relationship with the game of basketball. It’s only been one game that he has played in, but you can see that Bronny remained in line with his stats from college basketball into the NBA summer league literally scoring his college average in the first game, with the same solid defence and a few good defensive plays to go with them. Shooting can come and go, but you look for NBA qualities outside of shooting and those qualities are certainly his calmness on the court. Not to mention, these stats aren’t terrible, this is only a problem for someone who wants to be drafted out of college- but if he can score a couple buckets for an NBA team with good defence- he could be valuable to a franchise in the coming future.

 And there is one other thing about Bronny that I love, as a fan, you never feel like he’s ever not supposed to be in that game, in fact he gives the aura of the guy that we are all trying to get to shoot more confidently and at a higher volume- I guarantee you all of his teammates just wanna see the guy fulfill his obvious shooting prowess. For one, he is a highly fluid athlete – when he runs, he glides and when he plays defence he has an undeniable feel for winning basketbal- boasting amazing lateral quickness. As pointed out above, the thing about Bronny, is that(pointed out my many people other than me) he is a pass first guard like his father. Bronny is never gonna be the type of guy that hurts your team with impulsive turnovers or bad shot selection even. Which comes out to be both his greatest strength and weakness. But sometimes he seems to fade into the background- which is very unlike his father. But he is not iso player, even in college because this isn’t what he has been conditioned to do.  And again, there are good and bad outcomes to being this archetype of player.

In comparison, Lebron grew up playing with his friends always being The “chosen one”. Bronny has grown up in the overtime generation, all eyes on him but also with huge stars on his teams pretty much always- this means big names with big egos. Now this can be mobilized to become one of his greatest assets and more importantly drawing a line in the sand between him and his dad.

For someone his age he’s matured a lot by playing with top prospects so being the win first guy he is, he started to play this role as the quiet facilitator and a bit of a glue guy. We all know LeBron affects winning transparently and with a loudness- because he is rightfully so the “ chosen one”, the king of basketball of course and this had been a by product of his insane stature, athleticism and having the ability to guard any position. And I know we say fuck it to the comparisons but it is interesting and freeing to Bronny to analyze this situation in depth. The main takeaway is that the difference between Bronny and Lebron is that dominance in the paint and not only effecting winning but everybody knowing he is the guy that is gonna be on the other end of the winning play cause he puts that chip on his shoulder. I don’t think Bronny plays with that chip. Bronny might never have that kind of dominance that we see from LeBron in the paint and the sheer ability to get his team to the finish line. By all means I would love if he proved me wrong but I just don’t see him being that type of player. And I think he even knows that, because again, he’s a team player and a nice kid but he holds a more subtle temperament than his father did basketball wise and perhaps even outside of basketball.  And this is why he sees himself as a Jrue holiday type of guy. I think it’s interesting, how it isn’t talked about how bronny is different than his father in the type of relationship he has with basketball as much as a player, this being an overlooked aspect of how we define both. Because Bronny grew up in a different role as Lebron. And maybe that’s great because we can see that maybe the type of guy that could hold a franchise together and not one that could turn it around and leave the village to starve like Lebron’s narrative has sometimes been ridiculed for. This is probably why Bronny says that he looks up to guys like Steph Curry who remained loyal to one franchise, because he sees himself as a that kind of ball player.

All in all , he is undeniably meant to be there and plays winning basketball. After all we only get half the genes of certain desired traits from our parents- like jumping insanely high or undesired traits like farting uncontrollably.

Looking ahead for when Bryce James is going through this, the youngest of the James clan, he might have some of the opposite problems that Bronny faces. With a long wingspan and a stretch three kind of build, Bryce is kind of built like a poor man’s derrick jones junior and bronny is sort of built like a poor mans Anthony Edwards. In this way we can see both of them developing into more niche NBA players than prodigy’s. Bryce, might be able to shoot and post up but he’s never gonna have the type of explosiveness that his brother does and vice versa for Bronny.

So here we see, once again, even when the dawn of his career is coming to an end and we are starting to say goodbye to the Napoleon of basketball, whom undeniably rose to the top due to his innate virtue and feel for the game, how unique of a player and person Lebron James really was. I know that when he was beating the shit out of the raptors literally castrating them, I thought lebron James was the villain. But in the later stages of his career, to be more grateful towards him, me and I think a lot of people actually found myself cheering for him. Because I took this greatness for granted. And although we will get to see the two parts of his game in both of his sons(maybe Bryce can get drafted with less of the dramatics in which browny did because the news literally overshadowed actual free agent moves being made) although they will carry the torch, it will be split in half, and always will, bold but true and mostly because of one simple beautiful fact-  there will never be another Lebron James.