The NBA world immediately began to speculate about LeBron James’ future with the Lakers after his representative made comments about his client monitoring how the team would handle the offseason in an attempt to improve the team, but Bronny James was not among the crowd.
Bronny has been preparing to play for the Lakers in the California Classic that starts Saturday in San Francisco. He talked after practice Wednesday about how he was unaware of the rumors and innuendo surrounding his famous teammate and father.
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LeBron James opted into his $56.2-million contract on Sunday, leading his agent, Rich Paul, the chief executive of Klutch Sports, to tell ESPN that James was watching closely to see how the Lakers would improve the team.
“We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future,” Paul told ESPN. “We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him.”
In NBA circles, that was seen as a way to force Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka to make moves during the offseason to make the team better or that James might be willing to seek a trade.
Paul made it clear to ESPN that was not the case.
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Read more: Lakers agree to terms with former Portland center Deandre Ayton
Bronny, in his second season in the NBA after being selected in the second of the draft at No. 55 in June 2024, said he’s not on social media as much anymore, but that he was told about the news.
“Actually, one of my friends called me talking about where, what I was gonna do. ’cause they seen my dad, whatever. I didn’t see it,” Bronny said after practice Wednesday. “He called me. I was like, ‘Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ …. Yeah, I don’t … I, yeah, I don’t really pay attention to that stuff so. Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going around that I don’t pay attention to, yeah.”
The Lakers did make a move Wednesday, agreeing to a deal with Deandre Ayton, giving them a center they had to have.
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Bronny was asked if his conversations with LeBron include the direction the franchise is headed and where his dad wants to play.
“No, we don’t really talk about it much,” Bronny said. “But I think when stuff like that does come up, he just tells me to not worry about it, not even pay attention to it. Just lock into what you have going on right now. And that’s what’s gonna get me better and to keep me focused. I think it’s good that he tells me to not pay attention to that stuff.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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