Stephen A. Smith made a surprising claim about Bronny James this week on the heels of his big USC debut.
Over the weekend, Bronny suited up for his first ever game as a member of the Trojans. Two things ultimately came out of that outing.
First and foremost, Bronny’s 2024 NBA Draft stock got an important update from a league scout. And secondly, his dad LeBron caused a bunch of controversy over his actions during the National Anthem.
This week, Smith appeared on ESPN’s ‘First Take’ and made a surprising claim about Bronny.
What did Smith say? Essentially that he has purposely been avoiding the topic of Bronny’s burgeoning basketball career due in no small part to LeBron’s influence.
“One of the reasons, especially sitting in this chair and in this position covering basketball the way that I do, you rarely hear me talk about this kid over the years [because] I knew how unfair it was because of who his dad was,” Smtih said.
“I just wanted, I knew eventually obviously get to the collegiate level and all that other stuff, but because of who his dad was, I’ve talked about him very, very little. But now that he’s on a collegiate level at USC, obviously we’re going to have to and we’ll eye all his progress.”
That is quite the confession, especially considering that many other sports media personalities haven’t shied away from criticizing Bronny. Case in point: Michelle Beadle.
Now that the kid gloves are apparently off, it will be interesting to see what Smith has to say about Bronny going forward.
To date, Bronny has always handled the media scrutiny well. It doesn’t matter whether it was his love life being dissected or his skills on the court, the youngster always handled the pressure with a ton of poise.
Security Stops NBA Fan From Filming LeBron James, Mystery Woman: https://t.co/KjH47HWB8m
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 13, 2023
That said, he has never had to deal with the likes of Smith and Co. before.
How will Bronny hold up now that he is apparently about to get the LeBron Treatment from sports shows going forward? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
