Credit: Ken Papes/USA Today Sports
Bronny James’ future is perhaps more widely speculated about than any other prospect in the last few seasons. A senior in high school at the moment, Bronny is expected to declare for the 2024 NBA draft. And while the young James has shown a lot of promise in his game, there is another reason that he is of so much interest to those around him.
LeBron James has made it clear that he wants to play a season with his son if and when Bronny makes it into the league. Normally, any player that age wouldn’t command such an interest, but LeBron has shown that age hasn’t had much of an effect on his performance at all.
And that makes acquiring Bronny potentially interesting to a lot of NBA franchises, as it means that any team getting him will also get LeBron. But before he can be drafted, the league’s eligibility rules state that he has to play a season more.
Normally, this would mean college or, in recent times, a season in the NBA G League. However, there is a third potential option that has been mentioned for Bronny by The Athletic, and that is the Australian NBL (National Basketball League).
“Bronny, in the fall of 2023, will either be in college, with G League Ignite or in Australia.”
It’s not entirely unheard of for a young prospect to play in the NBL, LaMelo Ball famously played for the Illawarra Hawks and was selected 3rd overall in the NBA Draft in 2020.
Whether Bronny will go out of the United States to play basketball for a year is an excellent question, and it would certainly have its benefits. He would be away from the scrutiny of the press for the most part and would be playing against actual professionals while honing his craft. However, he would miss out on training alongside his dad, which has to be better than a lot of other experiences. It’s going to be an interesting decision, to say the least.
.