The Los Angeles Lakers had hinted at it all offseason, and they really delivered. During the late stages of the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, the Lakers finally drafted LeBron James’ son, Bronny James.
The elder and young James will be the first father-son duo to play in the NBA in league history. (However, Bronny might start in the G-League first.) And before anyone goes on making claims about the Lakers drafting Bronny because of nepotism, ESPN analyst Adrian Wojnarowski shared a rather pointed rebuttal.
In the aftermath of the pick, a clearly annoyed Wojnarowski went on a rant about how nepotism is already so rampant in the NBA.
From coaching to front offices, the practice is all over the place. To Wojnarowski, the Lakers drafting Bronny is just an excusable drop of water compared to the entire league’s landscape:
Woj: "I don't want to hear the charges, people talking about nepotism. The NBA is full of nepotism. The ownership level, front offices, coaching. I don't want to hear about it all of a sudden because Bronny James' father plays for the Lakers. It is rampant in this league." pic.twitter.com/LW9FI6BLOX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 27, 2024
Wojnarowski’s point is technically correct. The NBA also isn’t the only league — or profession — for that matter — that has such rampant instances of nepotism. The Lakers getting LeBron James’ son is more the tip of the iceberg than a canary in the coal mine. And it’s far from the worst situation to get a dad and son on the court together. This kind of problem has existed for years.
On the other hand, you have to love the logically sound argument that essentially states, “If it happens elsewhere, it’s OK here.”
It’s a cool story that LeBron James gets to play with his son in the best basketball league in the world. No one’s denying that. We don’t have to sugarcoat the inner details about how it happened, though. It’s still nepotism, and it’s still a greater symptom of a much larger problem.
Featured image courtesy of ESPN