LeBron James has issued a strong defence of his son, Bronny James, whose selection by the Lakers in last month’s NBA Draft was the subject of controversy.
Bronny averaged just 4.8 points and 2.1 assists per game during his lone college season with USC, before being drafted to his father’s NBA team.
However, LeBron says no one has a true grasp of Bronny and his situation.
“I don’t know if people really understand Bronny,” James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin on Sunday. “He doesn’t care. I actually care a little bit. When I came in [as a rookie], I wanted people to like me and some of the things that people were saying about me kind of bothered me early on in my career. … He doesn’t give a f—.
“He does not care about nobody. He doesn’t even listen to that stuff. He’s like the coolest. He’s like the complete opposite of his dad. His dad will say something [to address the critics]. Bro does not care. … Everything that’s being said about him, he really does not care.”
LeBron added that Bronny refused to let any of his success or fame change him as a person.
“Just imagine if you were a kid, you were born into a situation where your dad was super famous, super wealthy and you the kid still had the drive to want to be able to accomplish things for yourself,” LeBron said. “I personally don’t know if I would’ve been able to do that if the roles were reversed.
” … When I was coming up, I had no choice. I literally had no choice. … I had to make it out for me. My mom, my family, my hometown, my city. Bronny has all the choices in the world. If Bronny wants to stop right now or never played basketball or just wanted be a gamer or wanted to be a chef or wanted to be nothing to whatever, he could have done that.
” … People don’t understand how hard that is and the commitment for him to be coming out of heart surgery less than a year ago, for him to be able to be in the NBA, the kid, he’s special. But he doesn’t care. He doesn’t. It doesn’t bother him.”
Bronny, who will spend most of next season in the G League, played his first game in purple on gold on Saturday when he made his NBA Summer League debut in a 108-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings at the California Classic.
He finished with 4 points on 2-for-9 shooting, to go with 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in 22 minutes.
READ MORE: Bronny James Addresses Doubters in First Day With Lakers