Bronny James is getting ‘special treatment’ that will be ‘detrimental’ to his development, says NBA Insider

Bronnie James is receiving “special treatment” that will be “detrimental” to his long-term development, ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst said.

The younger James will only play in home games for the South Bay Lakers, the LA Lakers’ G League team, and will not have to endure the hardships that come with traveling and playing in hostile locations.

“I’m going to put the brakes on my ‘everything’s fine on the Bronny front’ with this thing that’s happening right now, which is that, in my opinion, he’s only going to play in the South Bay Lakers’ home games, that he will only play in the South Bay Lakers’ home games. being kind of a part-time G League player, and he’s not getting on United Airlines and flying and going to these other teams, playing in these road games,” Windhorst said on the podcast ‘The Hoop Collective’.

“Honestly, I know he got some special treatment and nepotism, which is fine,” added Windhorst, who covered LeBron James in high school. ‘I don’t care. It’s normal. Now I think it’s actually harmful to him. I don’t like that. I don’t know whose idea it was. Obviously the Lakers are okay with it, they’re doing it.

“In this particular case, I think that went too far, and I don’t think it benefits Bronny, I don’t think it benefits the South Bay Lakers and I don’t think it benefits LeBron at that point .”

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Former NBA player Brian Scalabrine echoed similar thoughts on his SiriusXM NBA radio show with Frank Isola, saying that competing with older players and traveling to games instead of living the high-class life of an NBA player would toughen James up and make his ‘inner dog’ would reveal. ”

“We will find out,” said Scalabrine. “We won’t find that out if we play five minutes at the end of the Lakers bench. The best part is that we’re going to find out. You can’t go anywhere (the G League). There’s nowhere to hide. He has a four-year-old ($7.9 million) deal….This is it right here. If you go there, you have to fight for your crumbs. And this is what it will be like for him, and we will be able to find out.

He added, “If this thing is going to work, Bronny is going to have to find out who he is and that’s probably not as the 12th, 13th, 14th guy on the Laker bench. He’s going to have to find himself in the G League, where he plays 30 minutes a night, where guys are leading him.”

Bronnie made his G League debut on Saturdaywith six points, four assists and three rebounds in 31 minutes in a win over Salt Lake City at the Lakers’ practice facility.

The 6-foot-1, 20-year-old guard has played a total of 16 minutes in six games with the Lakers, tallying four points, two assists and one rebound.

Still, Windhorst believes playing road games would benefit James in the longer term.

“I think it would be much better if Bronny was a more developed player in February or March playing in the G League road games,” Windhorst said.

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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter covering Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his website at ZAGSBLOG.com.