Lakers have Drafted Bronny James with a $302m contract with add…

LeBron James’ longtime agent Rich Paul currently represents his son Bronny, and the agency spoke briefly on the younger James’s behalf when he was still in the pre-draft process. The younger James filed to enter the NBA Draft in 2024, but Paul is adamant that he would not sign a two-way deal with a professional team.

In a lengthy interview, he said to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, “Yes, that’s absolutely true.” Teams are aware of this. That’s not what I’m doing. James has received over ten workout invites, but The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that he is “only expected” to check out with a select group of teams, namely the Lakers, who have picks no. 17 and no. 55 in the draft, and the Suns, who have the No. 22 pick.

Paul also told Haynes that Bronny — who also suffered cardiac arrest prior to his freshman season — isn’t simply getting an opportunity because of his name.

Paul suggested that the four-star high school recruit, who averaged 4.8 points per game and logged under 20 minutes a night as USC’s sixth man, doesn’t need to “apologize” for his lineage.“What do you think is going to happen with Jeff Bezos’ kids? He built Amazon. You think they’re not going to be positioned based upon what he’s built?” Paul said. “And none of them should be apologetic about that. The only thing you can go by is being thankful, treating people a certain way and enhancing something that you were positioned for. They shouldn’t apologize for that.“And Bronny shouldn’t apologize for who his dad is.

Paul also spoke on people rooting against James’ success.“I’m not going sit here and punish a dad for being excited about his son because for many years, the Black father was portrayed as absent and he was portrayed as non-supportive,” he added. “There may have been some expectations through social media excitement that may have raised awareness to where people want to see you fail more than they want to see you succeed. Bronny catches a lot of strays from his father’s success. But that’s all part of it.”