He has made 17 baskets.
He has played in the equivalent of less than three full games.
Seventeen Lakers have spent more time on the court. Sixteen Lakers have scored more points.
He has been but a speck of lint on the Lakers' lapel, a bit of dust at the end of the Lakers' bench, a small and irrelevant bystander in the Lakers' long and arduous journey.
Yet, admit it, Bronny James has been huge.
The nepo baby whose arrival last summer was ripped across the NBA landscape has quietly risen above the criticism and gradually drowned out the noise.
The famous son whose selection as the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA draft was trashed in this space as “not very smart” has actually become part of something that borders on ingenious.
I was wrong. I was very wrong. There have been few things more right about this season than the saga of Bronny James.
He hasn’t made an NBA impact, but he hasn’t been a distraction, either. Arguably the league’s most disliked and discounted rookie when the season began, he has won over fans, impressed teammates, inspired his father, and silenced the media.
Shut me up, anyway.
Ten months ago, when the Lakers acquired the oldest son of their best player, I wrote that the move was an insensitive joke.
Ten months ago, I had the hottest of hot takes.
“It’s not very smart,” I wrote. “And, for two of the main people involved, it’s not very fair.”
I concluded my screed with, “Bronny is coming … the circus is starting.”
Turns out, the circus never arrived. The reality is, in one of its finest efforts, the Lakers' management handled the sensitive situation with nimble ...
