LeBron James, Bronny, NBA
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

February 28, 2024

LeBron James Reacts To Bronny Being Removed From ESPN’s 2024 NBA Mock Draft

LeBron James defends his son, Bronny when ESPN dropped him from their 2024 mock draft and placed him in next year's.

Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James has come out in defense of his oldest basketball-playing son, Bronny, following ESPN’s dropping him from the 2024 mock draft.

The future NBA Hall of Famer has openly professed his desire to play on an NBA  team with Bronny. Although Bronny is only a freshman at the University of Southern California, there has been speculation that the younger James would declare for the NBA Draft after his first year in college. But with Bronny not making a splash on the basketball court for the school, ESPN has removed his name from its annual draft list.

Although he was removed from this year’s list, ESPN added him to the following year’s Mock Draft. The U.S. Sun provided the explanation by ESPN for omitting the younger James from the 2024 list.

“A month into his college career, James is still finding his footing at USC, having some strong offensive performances (15 points in 20 minutes at Oregon State) and some lackluster ones (two points vs. Stanford, zero points vs. Washington State).

“He is not the type of player who will consistently carry a team with his scoring.”

Bronny is noted as an excellent defensive player who needs to hone aggressiveness and ball-handling skills to be more of a true combo guard.

The elder LeBron took to social media to chastise individuals speaking about Bronny’s removal from the Mock Draft, making it clear that Bronny wasn’t fazed by the snub. He adds that his son “just WORKS! Earned Not Given!”

He eventually deleted the message, but USA Today captured James’s post on X.

“Can yall please just let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball,” James wrote Monday afternoon. “The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do. If y’all don’t know, he doesn’t care what a mock draft says, he just WORKS! Earned Not Given!”

He also gave some advice to other prospects hoping to make it to the professional level.

“And to all the other kids out there striving to be great, just keep your head down, blinders on and keep grinding. These Mock Drafts doesn’t matter one bit! I promise you! Only the WORK MATTERS!! Let’s talk REAL BASKETBALL PEOPLE! ✌🏾👑”

Although Bronny suffered a cardiac arrest last July while on the USC campus, he started the year recovering and eventually joined the team. In 19 games, he is averaging 5.5 points on 37.1% shooting, grabbing 2.8 rebounds, and dishing out 2.5 assists while averaging 20.2 minutes a game.


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