[Boy Child Basketball. Photo Credit to Pixabay]

Bronny James, the eldest son of LeBron James, is set to play alongside his father on the same team.

On June 28th, during the 2024 NBA draft held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, Bronny got drafted by the La Lakers with the 55th pick overall in the second round.

Unlike many lower-ranked drafted players, Bronny James has garnered a lot of attention from many basketball fans and NBA officials.

Despite his relatively low draft position, the reason he received the most attention is because he is the son of the legendary LeBron James.

LeBron James, widely regarded as one of the NBA's top two players of all time, currently plays for the La Lakers.

Thus, Bronny and LeBron became the first father and son to play on the same team at the same time in the same league in NBA history.

Such occurrences are rare not just in the NBA, but across all sports leagues, so they took over all the spotlights

However, there are many negative public opinions toward Bronny.

Bronny is a good role-player resource because of his compliance shooting ability, athleticism, and excellent defense despite his small height of 188 cm.

Nevertheless, the reason why Bronny has a poor rating is because of nepotism. Many people say that he could be drafted only because he is the son of LeBron.

At the time of playing at the University of Southern California, Bronny recorded a stat that was a little short of challenging to be drafted, with 4.8PPG, 2.8RPG, and 2.1APG with only 36% FG and 26% 3P%.

Additionally, in 2023, his diagnosis of Congenital Heart Defect further undermined his player value. As a result, many predicted that Bronny would not make it to the NBA.

There is a lot of speculation regarding why the LA Lakers selected Bronny, but the most likely reason is to keep LeBron in the team, who recently became a Free Agency(FA) on the team.

On the other hand, there are some positive public opinions too.

While they agreed that Bronny is not good enough to enter the NBA, they stated that the selection was not a bad choice for the NBA.

ESPN reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski said, "I don't want to hear the charges, people talking about nepotism. The NBA is full of nepotism. The ownership level, front offices, and coaching. I don't want to hear about it all of a sudden because Bronny James' father plays for the Lakers. It is rampant in this league." This indicates that cases like Bronny are quite common, so it’s not a big deal.

Also, even though he doesn't have a great sense of offensive ability, his defense ability and athleticism offset those negative commentaries. They expect that Bronny can be a promising role player.

Lastly, they even said that as Bronny James brought up controversial news that will fuel the arguments about the issue, it could be a great marketing strategy.

Thus, the debate over Bronny's NBA debut alongside his father LeBron James is raging.

Therefore, Bronny's performance in the next 2024-2025 NBA season is highly anticipated by NBA fans.