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Bronny James is trying his best to make his own name for himself, but even he is admitting that he is affected by the criticism that he gets.
The Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny spoke this week in an extended interview with Joe Vardon of The Athletic. During the interview, Bronny addressed the negativity that he gets from critics, acknowledging that he sees all of it.
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“My first thought about everything is I always try to just let it go through one ear and out the other, put my head down and come to work and be positive every day,” said Bronny. “But sometimes it just, it fuels me a little bit. I see everything that people are saying. People think, like, I’m a f–king robot, like I don’t have any feelings or emotions.
“But I just take that and use it as fuel for me to go out, wake up every day and get to the gym early, get my extra work in, watch my extra film every day, get better every day,” Bronny went on. “That’s what [Lakers GM] Rob [Pelinka] wants me to do as a young guy, coming in, playing in the G League, and learning from afar on the bench watching the Lakers play.”
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You can read Bronny’s full interview with Vardon here.
As the son of LeBron James, Bronny, 20, faces constant barbs of nepotism. Those are probably pretty fair too considering that Bronny got a standard roster spot with the Lakers (not even a two-way contract) despite having nothing in his game yet to indicate that he is deserving of one. Through his first 21 NBA appearances, Bronny holds microscopic averages of 1.6 points and 0.4 assists per game on 26/23/73 shooting splits. Though Bronny’s numbers in the G League this season look much better (20.6 points and 5.1 assists per game), he is objectively not an NBA-caliber player at this point in his career.
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LeBron, Bronny’s father, hasn’t exactly made things better either. In addition to helping his son join the Lakers, he previously made absurd remarks claiming that Bronny was superior to many current NBA players when he was a youngster. That has simply made Bronny a more vulnerable target and caused the public to exaggerate his difficulties.
Although Bronny’s NBA career is still very much up in the air, the USC product has recently begun to show signs of maturity. It appears like Bronny’s main goal is to (eventually) establish his value by working hard behind the scenes. He recently went viral for his brutal response to a heckler on the road.
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