Warriors Facing Backlash Following Bronny James NBA Draft Rumors

It seemed like a foregone conclusion back in June when USC Trojans star Bronny James fell in the 2024 NBA Draft to pick No. 55, where the Los Angeles Lakers were able to select him and pair him with the legendary LeBron James.

According to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, this didn't just happen without some effort, though. A new report shows that the Golden State Warriors, who had the No. 52 pick ahead of the Lakers, wanted to take Bronny, but passed in deference to King James.

Shelburne says the Warriors wanted to "respect the wishes" of LeBron.

While the end result is something entertaining, as we all get to watch LeBron and Bronny play on the same court together for the next year at the very least, there is some frustration among NBA fans that Golden State would stand by for an opposing team's wishes and not do what they thought was best for their own franchise.

On social media, the Warriors are starting to face some backlash from fans after the news was reported.

"Got teams refusing to make themselves better because they wanna respect their rival's wishes," one fan said, including a video mashup of players and coaches remarking that the "game is gone."

"I feel like some teams in the 90s, if they knew his wishes, would have drafted him out of spite," another fan posited.

Another fan put it bluntly, saying "This is the softest thing i can ever remember reading in the history of sports."

Author Dre Baldwin asked an important question about the whole thing: "Is this a competition or a Disney movie?

While some fans are also speculating about what this might mean for a trade package involving the two James boys and a deal landing them with the Warriors, what's clear right now is that LeBron wanted to play alongside his son in Los Angeles, and other teams went out of their way to let it happen.

Whether you like it or not, that's the league that we currently have right now.

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