Barkley said it's a bad look for the team and LeBron.
The Los Angeles Lakers are chugging along nicely to start the 2024-25 season, posting a 10-6 record with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Predictably absent from the court for much of the opening season stretch has been Bronny James, the son of LeBron who the Lakers drafted with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA draft.
"This thing where he's only gonna play home games? It's stupid," Barkley said. "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 there's a player you ain't seen in a week or two. And then you feel like you probably gotta play him. I don't think they're doing Bronny any favors and they just handled this thing really bad.
It does come across as detrimental for Bronny's development. The Lakers are all-in on winning games this year and everybody is of the same understanding that the younger James is not ready to contribute to winning basketball. It should go to reason, then, that L.A. would be invested in ensuring he gets playing time anyway with South Bay.
In two games played for the South Bay Lakers so far, James is averaging five points and three assists in 28.5 minutes per contest.Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead.
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