![Bronny and LeBron]()
Right on the heels of
an electrifying NBA Draft lottery, news broke Monday that Bronny James has been medically cleared by the NBA's expert fitness panel, only nine months removed from his cardiac arrest incident.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1790003811311927476
I would qualify the information from Shams as "reportedly" but his hit rate is around 100% these days. You know who else is a famously reliable basketball reporter? Brian Windhorst of ESPN, who's followed LeBron James' entire career since the high school days at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Plus,
Windy is the subject of a literal meme because of how spot-on he was about the Utah Jazz blowing up their team and ultimately trading the likes of Rudy Gobert to Minnesota and Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland.
Safe to say our guy Windy is plugged in — especially when it comes to matters related to LeBron. So if he's going on national TV to say that the Lakers will draft Bronny if he's available, I would say it's far closer to stone-cold fact than soft speculation.
https://twitter.com/GetUpESPN/status/1790017477289685438
I thought
Bronny would've been better off sticking it out at USC under new Trojans coach and former mutual X/Twitter follower Eric Musselman. Alas, he's going to the quick path to the NBA. Not dissimilar to how Luke Skywalker didn't complete his training with Yoda on Dagobah, and went to Cloud City on Bespin to face Darth Vader despite his master's warnings. Another year or two of college ball might've behooved Bronny. Then again, it's expected to be a historically weak 2024 NBA Draft class. He can also write off his underwhelming freshman season at USC to the scary heart incident, which forced him to take months off from training.
Unlike the NFL, the NBA's draft takes place before free agency. Windy clarifies that Rich Paul is trying to dismiss the notion that Bronny and LeBron are a package deal, yet based on even the slightest chance that could be true, Bronny might get drafted earlier than expected. LeBron has said that it's a dream of his to play with his son in the NBA. Although the Lakers are open to making that happen, they only have the 17th and 55th picks to work with. Thanks to the Anthony Davis trade, New Orleans has the right to swap picks for next year if they wish and could own LA's No. 17 overall selection in the end.
Again, it's not a great draft class, so the Lakers will likely keep the 17th pick. Drafting Bronny that high is frankly too rich. It's very possible that another team could take a flier on Bronny before the 55th pick and try to lure LeBron to them. Quite a tricky situation. Here's a mere sample of the potential Bronny suitors who'd also appeal to LeBron, along with the draft picks they own:
- San Antonio Spurs (4th, 8th, 35th, 48th)
- Philadelphia 76ers (16th, 41st)
- New York Knicks (24th, 25th, 38th)
https://twitter.com/SASpurs_Esp/status/1790018353928470764
https://twitter.com/JClarkNBCS/status/1790009395419509226
Going to be weird that the most intriguing prospect in this draft is a fringe second-rounder who might not get drafted at all. Shouldn't be a perfect-storm forum for toxic discourse at all! Can't wait.
https://twitter.com/JoshEberley/status/1790009374099812358
https://twitter.com/RunItBackFDTV/status/1790022353646133442
