The Los Angeles Lakers‘ decision to draft Bronny James, the oldest son of Lakers superstar LeBron James, with the 55th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft raised eyebrows and drew criticism in the moment. With the season now fully in swing, the team’s handling of the younger James is drawing a new sort of criticism.
The Lakers recently made the decision to have James play for the team’s G-League affiliate, South Bay, but for home games only. When South Bay hits the road, James is called back up to the NBA roster.
NBA legend and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley had some pointed criticism of the Lakers’ plan, saying the situation was unfair to everyone from James, to his teammates, to the coaching staff.
“The kid is not ready to play in the NBA,” Barkley said in a recent appearance on The Bettor Angle. “He should be in the G-League so he can play basketball.
“And also, this thing where he’s only gonna play homes games. It’s stupid, it’s not fair to him. It’s not fair to the team. Can you imagine the coach of that team? You come off a road trip and you have a player you haven’t seen in a week or two. And then you probably feel like you gotta play him. I don’t think they are doing Bronny any favors. They have just handled this thing very bad. It’s a bad look for the Lakers. I really like everything LeBron has done. But it’s a bad look for him [too], in my opinion.”
James’ role for the Lakers has been extremely limited in his rookie season. In six games, he’s played a total of 16 minutes and made one of his six attempts from the field. In his two G-League games, James has seen the floor much more. He’s averaging 28.5 minutes per game but is only 4-for-19 from the field, including 0 of 6 from 3, with six assists, five rebounds and three steals.
In late October, Lakers coach JJ Redick told the Associated Press that splitting James’ time between the NBA and G-League squads has always been the plan.
“The plan for Bronny to move between the Lakers and South Bay has always been the plan since day one,” Redick said. “(General manager) Rob (Pelinka) and I have talked about that. LeBron’s talked about that.”
