Bronny James creating a new normal
LAS VEGAS -- It's not normal for 13-and-under games to draw sold out crowds on Sundays in Las Vegas gyms. It's not normal for 20-plus cameramen to be on hand filming the game and it's not normal for people who can't get into the gym to be trying to watch through windows in 100-plus degree heat. It's certainly not normal for me to go out and watch a player who is still a year away from starting high school play.
Then again, Lebron James Jr. isn't a normal kid, and for better or worse nothing about his experience from here on out is going to be normal.
The son of arguably the best player ever, LeBron James, "Bronny" was joined by his famous father on Sunday -- as he was all weekend during a championship run at the Bigfoot Hoops Las Vegas Classic -- as his North Coast Blue Chips team took on the Oklahoma Chaos Elite in a quarterfinal game.
A 6-foot-1 shooting guard who is rumored to be attending Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon as an eighth grader, James played extremely well, making his first five three-pointers and finishing with 17 points in a 75-63 win. Every move he made, the cameras followed him, the crowd -- which included rapper Quavo of the Migos -- went wild and when the dust settled James Jr. and his father were surrounded by security, moved out a back door and motored off in black SUV's.
I'm not even going to attempt to evaluate Bronny at this point. It's only the third time in my 20-year career in basketball that I've ever purposely gone to watch a non-high school player (Greg Oden and Perry Ellis were the other two). That's not fair to him and judging by things there are going to be plenty of opportunities to evaluate him down the road. Clearly, though, he's talented and as far as I can tell his team is quite impressive for such a young age group.
What I'm more interested in is how this process is going to play out.
I've been in this business long enough to remember what it was like for his father by the time he was a junior in high school. To this day, I've not seen anything like it. Sure social media and mixtapes have turned players like LaMelo Ball and Zion Williamson into teenage celebrities, but to truly appreciate the phenomenon that LeBron James was back in the early 2000's you had to have seen it first hand. That he's lived up to and exceeded all of the hype and expectations is still one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed.
After seeing the scene that I saw at Andre Agassi Prep, I think the Bronny James show could top what his father went through. I'm also quite sure that he's never going to get a chance to have any kind of normal basketball experience from here on out. I thought Michael Jordan's kids Marcus Jordan and Jeffrey Jordan experienced crazy scrutiny during their high school careers, but what they went through won't be anything compared to what's about to happen with Bronny.
As crazy as things were, the way that Bronny handled it all was the most striking thing I saw. I have a daughter who is only one year younger than him and I can't imagine her being the center of a circus-like atmosphere of the magnitude I saw. Sure, I'm not a famous father like LeBron James is and Bronny has seen fan and media craziness since he took his first toddling steps, but the poise and grace with which he dealt with all that was going on around him showed maturity far beyond his 13 years.
If a carefully cultivated plan to help shield James Jr. from the madness and give him a chance at the usual teenager experience hasn't already been put in place, I imagine that will be happening soon.
Like the rest of the basketball world I will be watching with great interest to see how this all plays out over the next five years. I said at the top of the column that it wouldn't be anything normal and it's not going to be. But, it's going to be the new normal for LeBron James Jr. and it's going to be unlike anything that any of us has ever seen.
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