Jaylen Brown has waded into the Bronny James discourse whether he wanted to or not.
It’s certainly the latter, as an unsuspecting Brown was caught on camera commenting about the son of LeBron James and his professional basketball aspirations. Brown was sitting courtside with Kysre Gondrezick and Angel Reese during the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers Summer League matchup in Las Vegas on Monday.
NBC Sports Boston was merely showing a clip on X (formerly Twitter) of his attendance and unknowingly started a firestorm. Brown can be seen mouthing something like, “I don’t think Bronny is a pro,” to Gondrezick.
Some have deciphered that he and Gondrezick discussed the prospect of Bronny playing with the Lakers G-League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers. Still, Brown seemingly thinks that based on name recognition alone, he’ll be in the NBA with his father.
Caught saying it on-camera and with numerous tweets in his direction, Brown took to social media to fan the flames. And with that, he gave credence to the words. There’s no mistaking what he said. And while we could see it with our own eyes anyway, you’d rarely see a player confirm that. But wanting to get out in front of it, Brown did what any modern athlete would do.
He tweeted about it.
That tweet was sent at nearly 3 a.m. Las Vegas time, so either someone in Brown’s inner circle informed him or some late-night doom-scrolling led to an “Oh Sh*t” moment. Whatever the truth may be there, it’s notable that Brown would go to great lengths to defend Bronny after doubting his career aspirations for everyone to see.
That likely shows LeBron’s pull league-wide and how the modern NBA player doesn’t want to unnerve rookies trying to make a name for themselves in the league. Brown didn’t want to be another Doug Gottlieb, it seems.
Surely, there wouldn’t be the same reaction if Brown made these comments about Anton Watson or Kevin McCullar Jr., the two players drafted before and after Bronny. But, since the discourse is so hellbent on nepotism, and Bronny seemingly only gets drafted because of who his father is, Brown feels the need to respond and set the record straight.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.