With Bronny James about to enter his first professional season, it’s starting to feel as though the entire world is passing judgment on every move he makes. That said, one former NBA superstar thinks people are judging him with the wrong scope.
In fact, on one of his recent “Gil’s Arena” podcasts, three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas offered a particularly interesting take on how the performances of James are judged.
What did Gilbert Arenas say about Bronny James?
“Everybody’s judging the basketball game but nobody’s judging him as an influencer,” Arenas said of James. “You know, sometimes you gotta look at it a little different. He’s an influencer playing basketball.”
Bronny James, the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and son of Lakers superstar LeBron James, is more popular than your average second-round pick. That’s because he’s part of the First Family of Basketball. Arenas decided to use that as a jumping-off point to make his “influencer” take.
“He has more followers on social media than Patrick Mahomes – he literally has more [followers] than a three-time NFL champion,” Arenas said of James. “His influence is really, really huge. He’s going to get chanted everywhere, this is not about his performance on basketball.”
The fact is, James does have more followers than Mahomes-Lakers rookie has 8.1 million on Instagram to the Chiefs star’s 6.8 million.
Through his first four preseason games, James is averaging 1.0 point and 1.0 rebound per game while shooting a paltry 12.5 percent from the field, numbers indicative of a player struggling to find his way.
Arenas then proceeded to explain his point, saying that James-considering he was the No. 55 pick coming in-shouldn’t be expected to set the league on fire right away.
The former Wizards great added, the same types of scrutiny and judgment aren’t given to players taken in the same range of the draft. He also claimed other prospects the Lakers could have selected instead of James are largely unknown and not as harshly criticized.
That latter critique came via a tweet from ex-Laker DeMarcus Cousins, who had said choosing James indicates the franchise is not serious about trying to win. Arenas seems to take this opportunity to respond directly to Cousins’ claim. “To say that the Lakers aren’t serious because they picked him at 55? Let me know who was a better choice at 55 that was going to help the franchise because I’m pretty sure that they were going to be cut just like most of the second round has been cut so far.”
Pick Player 2024 Preseason stats
53 Cam Spencer, Grizzlies —
54 Anton Watson, Celtics 1.3 PTS, 1.0 REB, 1.0 AST
55 Bronny James, Lakers 1.0 PTS, 1.0 REB, 0.3 AST
56 Kevin McCullar Jr., Knicks —
57 Ulrich Chomche, Raptors 0.7 PTS, 2.0 REB, 1.0 AST
58 Ariel Hukporti, Knicks 5.0 PTS, 3.7 REB, 0.3 AST
Spencer of Memphis and McCullar of New York have not yet seen any preseason action because of injury, but James’ preseason numbers really are similar to each of the last six picks in the NBA Draft aside from Hukporti, who has been some sort of revelation for Knicks fans.
When one puts it in perspective as Arenas suggests, then James does stand apart with his influence, and his performance is also comparable to being chosen in this year’s draft.
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