Why the optics of drafting Bronny James are much worse than signing Keljin Blevins, Thanasis Antetokounmpo or Chris Smith

We all know there's more to it than merit when it comes to Bronny James donning a Lakers hat. This young man is now going to sign what could likely be a guaranteed NBA contract (as agent Rich Paul keeps stressing), making him millions of dollars from pursuing professional basketball.

The N word - nepotism - was always something that the sports world was able to stay relatively free of. At least, when it came to matters on the court. But it seems we've turned the corner for good (or bad?) this time around.

There are no two ways about it. Bronny James is not one of the 450 or even 510 best basketball players in the world. Actually, when it comes down to it, Bronny is not even close to a top 5,000 basketball player in the world. We're not gonna spend much time debating his basketball credentials when it's apparent that most of them are manufactured (looking at you, Jonathan Givony. And you, McDonald's).

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However, there is something to be said about the optics of drafting an unproven player who was not the best player on even his high school team to the biggest basketball brand in the world.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of reasons why this is considerably worse than other open cases of nepotism:

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