why is Bronny James significantly out earning his peers taken around the same draft position?

[meekrab]

the league orchestrated him to the Lakers in the 2nd

Nobody aside from the Lakers saw any point wasting a pick = orchestration.

[Snakebites]

The same reason the CEO’s son rises higher and makes more money than his peers with the same or greater level of skill and seniority.

The real question is: why does Bronny get more attention than his peers, both in basketball and out, who are benefiting from similar circumstances?

[HotelVitale]

I don't think jerseys sales go directly to the team, but to the general point, yes.

He could be the highest revenue generating player in that draft.

Come on, guys. The team didn't actually calculated drafting him instead of BPA as a money-making move. There are reasons why the NBA--which constantly has gimmicks and cheap thrills in its in-person games and broadcasts and certainly in most of its media coverage etc--never ever has novelty picks or weird celebrity roster slots or whatever. It's a bad idea on many fronts.

This is just about Lebron. He said for multiple years before Bronny came out that he wanted to play on a team with him, even said that his #1 priority one year was the chance to play with his son. It's a very weird situation in that you have the world's most famous player having unique control over a franchise's roster and culture moves, obsessively wanting a particularly odd thing to happen.

This is quite naive I think.
It's absolutely about money.

Look how Lakers just moved up 20 spots in the second round draft by giving teams a few million. Teams love money. Bronny brought in more than 10 times the amount.

Like I said he’s literally the only novelty pick in the last 40 years at least in the nba, and the world’s most influential player talked for years about demanding he play with him (in ways that seemed at the time like threats toward his team).

You have to make some kind of argument to make this square. Also have to at least make some kind of argument to support the idea that Bronny James made the Lakers $20m last year.

[NO-KG-AI]

The same reason the CEO’s son rises higher and makes more money than his peers with the same or greater level of skill and seniority.

The real question is: why does Bronny get more attention than his peers, both in basketball and out, who are benefiting from similar circumstances?

Because there isn’t a more egregious one than Bronny in sports. His dad is an active player and Bronny absolutely sucks.

I think Austin Rivers was the closest analogue i can remember, but he was a very highly sought after recruit that people still had delusions would be good despite sucking for a long period of time before finding a role. No one thinks Bronny will amount to anything other than people just playing devil’s advocate.

Some guys might get notoriety quicker but eventually they have to show something on the court. Bronny never had to show anything and got guaranteed money and a roster spot, which is way more than some other star’s kids got despite being equally as bad, and probably better.

[Invictus88]

Why does the OP even ask this question?

Does he/she not live out in the real world where who you know / are related to can be just as/more important than what you know or can do?

Is it fair? No. Wake up to the real world dude. It's like that everywhere.

Engagement farming

Thank you for giving me a name for this.

[FarBeyondDriven]

Spoiler:

the league orchestrated him to the Lakers in the 2nd

Nobody aside from the Lakers saw any point wasting a pick = orchestration.

there's the thought that he intentionally tanked his draft stock to ensure he would fall enough for the Lakers to pick him without raising eyebrows and teams and the league went along with it since him playing with his dad was a major storyline. How else do you explain how he put up 22/5/5 while shooting 38% from three on volume with 2 steals while down in the G-League? Think about the disparity of that to his USC numbers 5/3/2. Think about the fact that he supposedly had a heart attack and yet he and his family are perfectly happy to send him right back out there. Do you honestly think they'd do that if he really had a heart attack? There's lot of legs to this conspiracy theory.

Implying that Bronny faked a heartattack is weird.

[meekrab]

the league orchestrated him to the Lakers in the 2nd

Nobody aside from the Lakers saw any point wasting a pick = orchestration.

there's the thought that he intentionally tanked his draft stock to ensure he would fall enough for the Lakers to pick him without raising eyebrows and teams and the league went along with it since him playing with his dad was a major storyline. How else do you explain how he put up 22/5/5 while shooting 38% from three on volume with 2 steals while down in the G-League? Think about the disparity of that to his USC numbers 5/3/2. Think about the fact that he supposedly had a heart attack and yet he and his family are perfectly happy to send him right back out there. Do you honestly think they'd do that if he really had a heart attack? There's lot of legs to this conspiracy theory.

Why do I have to explain that a young terrible basketball player got slightly better by playing more basketball?

[nbaguy1]

I think I coined it, so I repeat: LeSon

[bkkrh]

Cool, but you and I both know he was there because of Nepotism.

Sounds like you're talking without info. Thanasis organically made it into the G League, or did the Delaware 87ers have a long term plan to get Thanasis onto the 76ers to lure Giannis?

From the G League, Thanasis was drafted by the Knicks, are you also saying they were only doing that to get Giannis?

Thanasis was a prospect who deserved a shot in the NBA and showed he didn't belong during the 2014-2016 era.

The only reason he returned to the NBA was because of his brother being on a team and Milwaukee having a roster spot. I do not think he would have ever played in the NBA more than 6 minutes in 2016 if it wasn't for his brother.

Nepotism happens all over the place. It doesn't make it a slight on LeBron or Giannis for it to happen. They are both looking out for their families and have the power to do so.

Thanasis was the 9th of 119 picks in the 13-14 G-League draft. He had a pretty mediocre season and was at best a decent rotation player. The sole reason he got drafted 9th overall is that he is Giannis' brother. The sole reason he started 42 of 50 games and averaged 29 minutes as a G-League Rookie was that he is Giannis' brother. The sole reason that the Knicks drafted him is that he is Giannis' brother.

Here are some averages from other players in the league that season:

- Manny Harris 31.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.0 Steals
- Pierre Jackson 29.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.9 steals
- Kevin Murphy 25.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.1 steals
- Devin Ebanks 23 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.6 steals
- Robert Covington (as undrafted rookie) 23.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.4 steals, 1.4 blocks

When 24 year old Manny Harris looks like the 2nd coming of Michael Jordan in the G-League and still only gets called up for 8 games in a season where the lakers are 27-55 due to Kobe only playing 6 games that year it tells you what an awesome prospect Thanasis was. Same goes for Robert Covington being only called up for 7 games while playing extremely well as an undrafted Rookie.

Now it would have been another thing if Thanasis would have still been young, but he was 22 by the time the Knicks drafted him. He had played in Greece for 2 seasons already in the 2nd division. How many European prospects with NBA potential normally make the decision to go from the European leagues into the G-League? The answer is none. Usually it goes the other way around and talented US players decide to go from the G-League to Europe when they realize they won't get called up. G-League salaries in 13/14 were 15k to 25k per year. The only reason to play there was the hope to be picked up by another pro league.

So why on earth would he go there as a 22 year old European that plays in Europe? Because money wasn't an issue and he simply wasn't good enough to play in a decent European league. So it was a last effort to look good in his last season of draft eligibility. He had initially declared for the draft the season before and then withdrew. So besides all the other points related to nepotism he also had the luxurity to go in a bad league to raise his draft stock.

To make it simple, here is a direct comparsion of Bronny's and Thanasis' G-League stats in their 1st season there. As a reminder Thanasis was 21 and had played pro ball for 2 seasons already, Bronny was 19. On top of that, the G-League is more competitive today due to base salaries being now twice as high, exhibit 10 bonuses and 2 Way Contracts. Let's also not forget that the Knicks took Thanasis 51st overall, 1 pick ahead of Vasilije Micić, who was at this point already a way better and more successfull European prospect. Or Maxi Kleber who went undrafted, like about half a dozen other players that had solid NBA careers.

Thanasis
Season Tm G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
2013-14 DEL 50 42 29.3 4.3 9.1 .469 1.1 3.6 .309 3.2 5.6 .572 2.4 3.6 .663 1.7 2.6 4.3 2.1 1.2 1.3 2.3 2.9 12.0

Bronny
Season Tm G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
2024-25 SBL 11 11 34.2 7.7 17.5 .443 3.2 8.4 .380 4.5 9.1 .500 2.0 2.5 .815 1.0 4.3 5.3 5.3 1.9 0.3 3.5 2.5 21.9

So why did Thanasis deserve a shot to make it to the NBA? While I think that neither of them should have made it to the league, there is at least the chance that Bronny develops into something resembling an NBA player and I would be ok with him making it after staying in college and improving there. Thanasis on the other side was never more than a guy that is athletic and can dunk, that might get you in the league if you have the height to play Power Forward or Center, but for that he is 2-3 inches too small.

[Bankai]

Nepotism. Anyone remember Austin Rivers getting a fat contract with the Clippers because his dad Doc Rivers was the Coach?

[bovice]

I don't really see a problem with this. you're never gonna get rid of nepotism and that's not a bad thing in this case. it can be, but not in this case

[og15]

the league orchestrated him to the Lakers in the 2nd

Nobody aside from the Lakers saw any point wasting a pick = orchestration.

there's the thought that he intentionally tanked his draft stock to ensure he would fall enough for the Lakers to pick him without raising eyebrows and teams and the league went along with it since him playing with his dad was a major storyline. How else do you explain how he put up 22/5/5 while shooting 38% from three on volume with 2 steals while down in the G-League? Think about the disparity of that to his USC numbers 5/3/2. Think about the fact that he supposedly had a heart attack and yet he and his family are perfectly happy to send him right back out there. Do you honestly think they'd do that if he really had a heart attack? There's lot of legs to this conspiracy theory.

I know this is your general schtick and all, but saying he faked the heart attack, come on, at least keep your everything is a conspiracy stuff somewhat believable.

[AlexanderRight]

As long as he stays in the G League, it's still lame but whatever. Their money. It's only when JJ trots him out onto a real NBA game does he insult the intelligence of paying fans and spit in the face of every other player he's got on that bench. If he's actually smart instead of always pretending to be smart he'd ship his ass to South Bay for the whole year to boot the pressure off himself and let the kid work on his game because I actually believe he has potential if he can just stay out the circus. But if Lebron checks JJ on that, then he's got bigger problems all together...

[Tnasty4l]

It's cool when they do it... it's a problem when we do it.

[Anticon]

Probably the worst NBA nepotism that I can think of is (in no particular order):

-Doc giving his son what looked like an above market contract

-Bronny (though I do think there was some business in this, as people did want to see him play)

-Ryan Saunders (the circumstances around this were sad obviously, but he had no reason to be a head coach)

-The various Antetokounmpo signings, though some were an effort to attract Giannis and others a genuine effort to see if his brothers could compare to him

The other reality is how many NBA coaches are the sons of NBA coaches (Malone, Adelman, Bickerstaff, Silas).

The thing I find the worst about the Bronny situation is he actually was a promising player before his heart situation. He was a genuinely sought after recruit and not because of his Dad.

He unsurprisingly had a bad year in college and probably would have been better off earning NIL money and trying to regain his form in college at USC or elsewhere. And might have still made the league eventually, without getting the judgment he gets now.