LeBron James has accomplished many things in his NBA career. But his most pressing personal goal was to play alongside his son, Bronny, before he retired.
The Lakers made that happen for their star forward in 2024, selecting Bronny with the 55th overall pick in the NBA draft. However, in the halls of power in Los Angeles, the reported lack of LeBron’s appreciation for the organization drafting his son apparently fueled the Buss family’s desire to sell the team.
ESPN’s Baxter Holmes has written an in-depth piece probing the backstory of the Buss family’s decision to sell the Lakers to businessman Mark Walter for $10 billion last year.
Within that deep dive into the behind-the-scenes decision to sell, it is clear that former Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss harbored resentment toward James for what she perceived as his lack of gratitude for the team’s decision to draft his son.
“And when the Lakers drafted James’ son Bronny with the 55th pick in the 2024 draft, Jeanie privately remarked that James should be grateful for such a gesture, but she felt that he wasn’t, people close to the team told ESPN,” Holmes wrote.
The use of the word “gesture” in Holmes’ piece offers more than a casual insight into how Buss viewed Bronny’s draft selection. Bronny played in only 25 games during a collegiate career cut short, in large part, by a serious medical issue. However, when he was in there, the heir apparent to the “King” didn’t exactly bowl anyone over with his NBA potential.
He averaged only 4.8 points per game, to go along with 2.8 rebounds per game, and 2.1 assists.
With numbers like these, it’s unlikely that he would have been drafted if he weren’t the son of the greatest player of the last quarter century.
That certainly seems to be the viewpoint of Buss, who, if Holmes’ reporting is accurate, felt the Lakers were doing James a favor by drafting his son.
Jeanie Buss’s dissatisfaction with LeBron is not confined to his son.
Another nugget from Holmes’ report claims that Buss entertained trading LeBron to the Clippers a few years ago.
James, 41, is heading to the sunset of his Hall of Fame career. Bronny is merely trying to establish himself as an NBA player. In total, he has appeared in 24 games for 165 minutes, averaging 1.5 points per game.
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