"Not good for league to have old players"- 4x NBA champion voices concern over LeBron James' chances to share floor with Bronny James
After Miami Heat veteran Udonis Haslem announced his retirement last offseason, the title of oldest active player in the league was passed to LA Lakers star forward LeBron James who was 38 when Haslem departed.
Thus far in his career, LeBron has played for a total of 55,548 minutes and is second only to hall-of-famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Despite the mileage that he's logged, the star player remains effective on the court and has shown very little signs of slowing down.
It looks like he might be able to fulfill his dream of getting to play with his son Bronny James when he enters the NBA as he will be eligible to enter the league this offseason.
Fans are certainly eager to see this happen, but not everyone thinks it's a good idea for him to stay that long. In an interview posted on YouTube, four-time NBA champion John Salley shared his thoughts on having older players still playing:
"It's not good for the league to have old players still hanging around," said Salley. "Takes away from the advertisement. You know, you're trying to sell Ja Morant sneakers, you're not trying to sell LeBrons."
To be fair, Salley was not talking about LeBron James specifically, and even shared at the beginning of the interview that he could see him playing with Bronny as the first active father-son duo.
However, he felt that a situation like this could hurt businesses, using Nike's golf division shutting down as an example.
"Nike had to get rid of Nike Golf..." Salley added. "They had to get back to their core so they had to drop things that weren't making them, they couldn't, Tiger Woods was great for them but which one of the new up-and-coming kids are going to say 'I want some Tiger Woods.' No, they're gonna go with who the new guy is. In business, especially in sports, you get in you get out. If you last ten years you are blessed."
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LeBron James says he is okay with sharing the court with Bronny as an opponent
The fans have long been aware of LeBron James' desire to play with his son Bronny in the same team, likening it to the MLB's Ken Griffey Sr and Jr who were teammates at one point.
In fact, his current deal with the Lakers is structured to allow him to enter free agency this offseason just in time for his son to become eligible for the draft.
However, in an interview with ESPN's Dave McMenamin, he shared that he has to experience sharing the floor with his son whether they are on the same team or opposing sides.
LeBron James also shared that he and his son do not talk about playing in the NBA together and that he is just waiting for Bronny at this point.
At the moment, Bronny's draft stock appears to have fallen. He has only averaged 5.6 ppg and 2.0 apg in 12 appearances for the USC Trojans. In fact, his name is not even showing up among the top 60 prospects in mock drafts for the upcoming off-season.
Also read: "The Queen's son is horrible" - NBA fans roast Bronny James for subpar 2-pointer in USC's loss to UCLA