Be honest. Nobody saw this coming, right? Bronny James gets a slot on the Lakers bench (definitely not due to nepotism, of course) and – voila! – his teammates aren’t too thrilled about his special treatment.
Apparently, some Los Angeles Lakers players emerged from Summer League play mumbling and grumbling over the son of LeBron James and all the attention he got despite being the least worthy person on the team. And they ran to the US Sun to tell their story.
Most of the criticism centered on how the media treated Bronny as a more important player than the rest of them.
“A player who was part of the Lakers’ Summer League team confirmed that with ‘almost everything centered around Bronny,’ it was tough to enjoy hooping,” the report reads.
“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,” the player added.
All you loyal readers who have played team sports know how toxic this kind of thing can get. And quickly.
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Bronny James’ ‘Special Treatment’ Irks Teammates
Now obviously, a good teammate doesn’t run to the media with internal gripes about another player. And it’s clear from other commentary that the player in question wasn’t thrilled with their own performance and hence, a little salty.
But there’s certainly an element of truth to it. When Bronny James was going through an 0-15 slump from three-point range, the media gave him some special treatment by celebrating the fact that he had won a video game tournament.
Think if say, a Dalton Knecht wins a Call of Duty challenge the media is reporting on it? Nah.
“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,” the Sun writes.
“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,” one of their sources explained.
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Teammates Found It Very Annoying
Many have criticized the Los Angeles Lakers for picking Bronny James in the draft when nobody else was going to, then giving him a 4-year, $7.9 million guaranteed contract after averaging just 4.8 points per game with USC this past season.
Critics are one thing. When the players start getting annoyed with it, that’s when you have a revolt on your hands. And your season collapses before it begins.
The player who said the lack of team chemistry due to Bronny James’ special treatment was “very annoying” also suggested LeBron’s kid might not belong in the league.
“He is not ready for all this, and he isn’t ready for the NBA in my opinion,” the player is quoted as saying.
He’s not exactly going out on a limb with that prediction.
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