Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James hasn’t had an average rookie experience in his first NBA season.
As the son of Lakers star LeBron James, the 20-year-old has had to deal with tremendous levels of attention and criticism, all while trying to get his footing at the professional level.
It may not always be obvious, but the younger James is aware of what gets said about him. While he always tries to let the outside noise float by, he admitted during a recent conversation that the talk “fuels” him sometimes. He emphasized that people think he doesn’t have any “feelings or emotions,” something that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“My first thought about everything is I always try to just let it go through one ear and out the other, put my head down and come to work and be positive every day,” the younger James told The Athletic. “But sometimes it just, it fuels me a little bit. I see everything that people are saying, and people think, like, I’m a f—— robot, like I don’t have any feelings or emotions.”
He continued.
“But I just take that and use it as fuel for me to go out, wake up every day and get to the gym early, get my extra work in, watch my extra film every day, get better every day,” the younger James added. “That’s what Rob [Pelinka] wants me to do as a young guy, coming in, playing in the G League and learning from far on the bench watching the Lakers play.”
Despite the climate the rookie has had to navigate this season, he has done a nice job of making progress at the NBA and G League levels.
His opportunities in the NBA with the Lakers in the 2024-25 regular season have been limited, but when they’ve come, he’s shown signs of improvement lately.
Across his first 14 NBA games, he struggled immensely to hit shots, going just 2-for-22 from the field and 0-for-9 from deep. But over his last seven NBA appearances, the tides have started to turn for him, as he’s gone 8-for-16 from the field and 5-for-13 from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, he has shown legitimate promise in the G League this season. Across 16 total appearances with the South Bay Lakers, he has averaged 17.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 40.6 percent from the field and 31.4 percent from long range.
The 2024 second-round pick likely still has some work to do before he can become a consistent member of L.A.’s rotation at the NBA level, but there are reasons to believe that he’s getting closer. If and when that does happen, perhaps some of his critics will take a step back.
No matter who the player is, if someone gets selected at No. 55 overall and later becomes an NBA contributor, that’s an indication of a draft pick well spent.
