"That is very annoying" - Anonymous Lakers member reveals Bronny James 'frustrated' Summer League teammates
Bronny James finished his participation in the 2024 NBA Summer League with the LA Lakers. The young guard, selected at 55 in June's draft, didn't have the best start to the tournament, although his numbers got a little better as the games went by.
While analysts and fans criticized his performances with the Purple and Gold, an anonymous player says that the situation wasn't the best in the locker room, saying the attention was 'very frustrating' for the rest of the players.
“The attention he attracted was ‘very frustrating’ for the players to see, and his alleged star treatment caused friction among the team, which went 0-5 to start the tournament, per a Lakers insider,” Steve Brenner and Damian Burchardt of the US Sun wrote.
The anonymous player added that the tension prevented the team from building chemistry during the tournaments.
“‘That kind of tension didn’t help the group of players to build chemistry,’ the source said, who noted they have ‘nothing against’ Bronny.
“And you could feel that there was no unity [between] this group of guys as Bronny was the main guy and the others didn’t feel that it was right, that he deserved that.”
This player said that the whole situation was 'annoying' since Bronny was treated differently than the rest of the team.
“I mean, he was treated as someone apart, not like all of us, and that is very annoying as we didn’t feel any chemistry in this group of players."
Bronny James played four games in this year's Summer League in Las Vegas, averaging 25 minutes per game, posting 8.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. He shot for 35% from the field and 15.8% from deep.
Kevin Hart defends Bronny James against nepotism allegations
As many people have criticized Bronny James for the way he allegedly made it to the NBA, others have shown him a different face. Comedian and actor Kevin Hart defended the young guard against the nepotism comments, saying that the bad things said about James are much bigger than the good ones:
"Everybody loves the story of the good guy, but everybody really wants the story of the bad guy. There’s a lot of good things that’s being said about Bronny [James] right now as well, but you can’t hear it over the volume that people are adding to the bad things."
He brought up his daughter as an example, saying that his job as a father is to try to help her as much as he can to succeed:
“My daughter is in love with the idea of creativity of producing and developing. It’s my job as a father to not only give her the right information but put her in the best position to succeed.”
Bronny James is still young and has a lot of room to improve. Some think he should go to the G League, but time will tell which path the Lakers take with LeBron James' son.