Bronny James is not on the Los Angeles Lakers‘ NBA roster right now, but he remains the talk of the league nonetheless.
After sharing the court with his father LeBron for a handful of games early this season, Bronny was sent to the South Bay Lakers in the developmental G League, where he had been poised to receive regular minutes and adjust to the demands of pro basketball at a slower rate. But even away from the daily pressures of the NBA, Bronny remains a magnet for criticism and an easy target for talking heads.
Jason Whitlock’s vicious criticism
To put it nicely, Jason Whitlock is a sports media firebrand; to put it less nicely, Whitlock has long been known for delivering insensitive, misogynistic, and even racist commentary on sports and pop culture. Whitlock has a tendency to chime in on everything, and Bronny was his target recently.
After Bronny scored his first NBA basket in a Lakers loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Whitlock said on his Blaze Media show “Fearless” that Bronny was a “Make-A-Swish” kid — an offensive play on words that mocks the nonprofit Make-A-Wish Foundation for seriously-ill children.
“LeBron James has turned his son into the ‘Make-A-Swish’ kid and they’re celebrating it,” Whitlock said. “Let’s bring our little ‘Make-A-Swish’ kid out and have him run around Cleveland on the basketball court like he’s done something, and like people in Cleveland give a damn about Bronny James.”
Whitlock believes that the Lakers’ draft-night machinations to pair Bronny and LeBron will irrevocably stain LeBron’s championship-winning legacy. The NBA’s all-time scoring leader continues to produce though; LeBron, 39, has racked up four triple-doubles over his past five games, and the 9-4 Lakers are fourth in the Western Conference. He is much more likely to be remembered for 20-plus years of excellence rather than engineering a move to team up with his 20-year-old son.
“LeBron James is smiling ear-to-ear as he continues to take a dump on real competition,” Whitlock said. “That is his legacy. Destruction of the NBA. It has less relevancy than at any point in the last 20 years. That’s LeBron James’ legacy. Everybody trying to put together a super team, everybody doing jersey swaps. That’s his legacy.”
