NBA insider Ramona Shelburne claimed that LeBron James did not ask the LA Lakers to draft his son, Bronny James, in 2024. This comes after a report of an alleged rift between Lakers minority owner Jeanie Buss and the four-time NBA champion surfaced.
Last week, ESPN’s Baxter Holmes wrote an article detailing the end of the Buss family’s majority ownership of the Lakers. Jeanie Buss reportedly grew frustrated with James for various reasons. One of those was that Buss didn’t believe that the Lakers star was grateful to the team for drafting his son with the 55th pick of the 2024 NBA draft.
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“Jeanie privately remarked that James should be grateful for such a gesture, but she felt that he wasn’t, people close to the team told ESPN,” Holmes wrote on Jan. 20.
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On Tuesday’s episode of “Mason & Ireland Show,” Shelburne said neither James nor his agent, Rich Paul, has requested LA to draft the younger James.
“I don’t think LeBron asked the Lakers to draft Bronny,” Shelburne said. “I don’t think he or Rich Paul actually said. … It think they did it because they thought LeBron would like that.”
Shelburne was then asked if there were any other teams other than LA that were interested in selecting James.
“The Golden State Warriors considered him, the Dallas Mavericks with Nico Harrison over there and the Phoenix Suns,” Shelburne said. “All three of those teams had interest in Bronny. Would they have actually taken him? I don’t know.”
In October 2024, LeBron and Bronny became the first father-son duo to play in an NBA game together.
In response to his alleged strained relationship with Buss, James shrugged off the report, saying that he is not bothered by how someone feels about him.
Ramona Shelburne on Lakers star LeBron James’ future: “Keeping all of his options open”
In recent years, LeBron James’ future has been widely speculated. The four-time league MVP is 41 years old and is playing in an NBA-record 23rd season. In the same episode of “Mason & Ireland Show” on Tuesday, NBA insider Ramona Shelburne said James might continue to play beyond this season.
“I don’t think he’s retiring,” Shelburne said. “He seems like a guy who is keeping all of his options open.”
According to Shelburne, another option for James is to end his career with a third stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shelburne cited that the 21-time NBA All-Star could help the Cavaliers get over the hump. Cleveland entered the season as among the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, but has struggled to find consistency.
Edited by Kim Daniel Rubinos