TNT Sports’ Inside The NBA analyst Kenny Smith believes that anybody critical of Bronny James playing in the NBA “doesn’t know basketball.”
It must be Opposite Day. Since anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of basketball and/or a working set of eyes knows that James does not belong in the NBA.
“I just feel like anyone who criticizes Bronny just doesn’t know basketball,” Smith told Fox News. “He was a McDonald’s All-American, which means he’s one of the top-20 prospects in basketball at his age.”
Smith concedes that James’ lone year at USC was not played “at a high level,” an understatement if ever there was one, but that he was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers based solely on potential.
“He was a second-round pick. What a second-round pick means, is it means you’re drafted strictly on potential,” Smith said before adding, “He deserves that, he was one of the top-five point guards in his class out of high school, that’s potential, and he deserves that.”
He was picked to make his Dad happy. No other reason.
Bronny James Deserves NOTHING
It’s really cute watching these NBA analysts fall all over themselves trying to justify why a guy who shoots worse from the field than Angel Reese trying to make a layup deserves a spot on the Los Angeles Lakers roster.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has made similar comments.
“For us to look at something that he wants and say, ‘Excuse me can we do that for him?’ Yes, we can. Not just the Lakers, but NBA fans everywhere,” Smith said. “Yes, we owe it to LeBron James.”
Except, we don’t.
Smith adds that if not for Bronny James’ health issues, he likely would have been drafted higher.
“He might have had a really good season and got drafted in the position that he shouldn’t have been drafted, and the Lakers wouldn’t have had an opportunity to draft him,” he claims. “That helps him play with his dad, because now, we never saw him play last year.”
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Just Stop
Sorry, Kenny, but everybody did see him play at USC. We all saw him average a paltry 4.8 points per game in college. On 36.6% shooting from the floor.
There are some players that didn’t get drafted who could put a blindfold on and shoot at a better rate than that. Please just stop trying to sell this guy as NBA material. He isn’t.
A prominent league executive recently torched the Lakers for picking Bronny, saying the whole situation is “surreal.”
“Analytically, if you just had the numbers on a page and had no name attached to it, he doesn’t project in any way, shape or form to be an NBA player. His measurables don’t project as an NBA player,” he said.
“There’s literally nothing about him on paper — if no name is attached to it — that makes this make sense,” he continued.
Does that guy know basketball, Kenny?
James made his NBA regular season debut earlier this week, promptly scoring 0 points on 0 for 2 shooting and dishing out 0 assists. Go figure.
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