Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James has drawn flak for his poor performance in the Lakers' preseason games. LeBron Jr. was the 55th overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft by the Lakers. Despite getting drafted with the next to the last pick, he has received heavy criticism from detractors who argue that he is not ready to play in the NBA.
If you ask former Washington Wizards All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas , however, people should not judge Bronny James solely by the number of points he scored, the number of rebounds he grabbed, and so on. 'Agent Zero thinks that we all should look at Bronny's effect on the league's bottom line, too.
"Everyone's judging his basketball game, but nobody's judging him as an influencer," Arenas said . "Sometimes, you got to look at it a little different. He's an influencer that's playing basketball. You're talking about a kid who, he has more followers on social media than Patrick Mahomes. He literally has more than a three-time NFL champion."
Heavy social media following
Bronny has been a social media magnet ever since he opened an Instagram account in 2019. LeBron Jr. made headlines back then when he amassed a following of one million after just 24 hours. Four years later, Bronny was dubbed college basketball's most-followed player on IG with 7.6 million followers.
As of October 17, 2024, Bronny's Instagram page has 8.1 million followers. Last year, Ben Simmons was the 18th most-followed NBA player with seven million followers . He's still in that figure, and if they make a list today, Bronny will be in the Top 20. Patrick Mahones , on the other hand, has seven million followers.
"His influence is really, really huge," added Gil. "He's gonna get chanted everywhere. This is not about his performance on basketball. Whoever they were going to pick at 55, I'm pretty sure could've picked at 56, 57, 58, 59. And if I ask you who those people are, you don't know. Because most of the world stopped watching after 55."
Related: Wemby is surprised by the lack of effort some NBA stars put into improving their game: "They don't seem like they put as much work as I thought."
Day Two of the 2024 NBA Draft was for Bronny
This year's NBA Draft was unlike any other as it was divided into two days. The first day was for picks 1-30 or the first round. The second day was purportedly for the second round. But as Gil claims, the league changed the format because of Bronny's presence in the draft pool.
"The reason it was a second-round draft night was because of 55," continued Arenas. "So the fact that the NBA put a second-round day in is because of Bronny James. I don't think nobody in the world thought he was going to be picked in the first round. So they knew where he was gonna go. So they scheduled the whole thing behind him. He is a business. No matter what you say, you're making money off him."
While that's just Arenas' theory, it could be true. What is certain, however, is that after four preseason games, Bronny has scored just four points on 2-16 shooting, including 0-7 from three-point distance. Some say he will eventually adjust to the NBA game. Many argue that he is not NBA-ready. Business-wise, nobody is complaining.
Related: "If there's no Bronny, the kid from the Wizards would be called a bust today"- Gilbert Arenas thinks the top picks in the 2024 NBA Draft are doing worse than Bronny
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