The Los Angeles Lakers are currently taking part in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada, where most eyes have been on second round draft pick Bronny James, son of NBA legend and current team small forward LeBron James. While first round pick Dalton Knecht has shown some flashes of things to be excited about for Lakers fans, Bronny has largely struggled in the Summer League so far, still yet to knock down a three point shot and underwhelming fans who were hopeful that his solid college defense would translate to the NBA level.
While the Bronny selection has been painted as a feel-good motivational story by some, the reality of how he got to the Lakers was a bit less romantic, as it was reported that LeBron James' old retro jersey merchant Rich Paul essentially threatened teams not named the Lakers that if they drafted Bronny, he would be taking his talents to play in Australia instead.
Now, Paul is defending those actions during a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“The matter of fact thing is you have relationships with people and you make the calls, they respect each other,” said Paul, via Pat McAfee on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “They understand what was at stake in this case. There were several teams that were interested in Bronny but you do have the calls, and you talk about it, and they understand it. That’s just relationships throughout the league, you know the Australia thing, that is what it is.”
Paul also defended Bronny James as his Summer League struggles continue to mount.
” Look I think all these guys are in development, Bronny is no different,” said Paul. “He doesn’t get to be excluded from having to develop. Obviously he wants to make shots, and he will make shots, but again it’s about building great habits. I think the oppurtunity for Bronny to play at the league level will be on the defensive end and that’s something he’s really good at now. The other components of the game, he has to get better at and he will.”
Does Rich Paul have too much influence over the Lakers?
At this point, it's certainly fair to wonder if Bronny James' current circumstances are a byproduct of what he himself actually wants, or if those around him, such as Paul as well as his father LeBron, are making most of the decisions for him.
In any case, Lakers fans hoping to see Bronny on the Lakers roster this year aren't going to be very encouraged by what they've seen from the guard in Summer League this year. At this point, Austin Reaves, D'Angelo Russell, Dalton Knecht, Gabe Vincent, Max Christie, Cam Reddish, Jalen Hood-Schifino, and Maxwell Lewis would all figure to be ahead of him on the depth chart, which would make the prospect of him even being on the main roster, let along appearing in a game, appear to be far-fetched at best at the current juncture.
Still, fans who are quick to direct social media hate in the direction of the teenager might want to stop and reconsider how much of this is really on him, and how much of it can be traced back to the influence of people like Paul.
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