The 2024 NBA Draft was highly anticipated for one reason in particular.
With the Los Angeles Lakers having two picks (No. 17 and No. 55) and LeBron James’ son, Bronny, declaring for the draft after a lackluster freshman campaign at USC, many believed the Lakers would pair their superstar forward with his eldest son.
Unsurprisingly, the Lakers did just that, selecting James with their lone second-round pick. On Wednesday, though, a bombshell report involving the James clan reveals new details about the 2024 Draft that’ll surprise fans.
“And when the Lakers drafted James' son Bronny with the 55th pick in the 2024 draft, Jeanie (Buss) privately remarked that James should be grateful for such a gesture, but she felt that he wasn't,” ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported Wednesday.
Essentially, if one were to read between the lines, one would conclude that although Buss and the Lakers didn’t genuinely believe Bronny was worth a draft pick, they selected him to appease their aging superstar.
Following the highly scrutinized move, Buss felt that James didn’t appreciate the Lakers’ commitment to going out of their way to make him happy, even if their decision wasn’t in the franchise’s best interest.
Fast forward to early 2026, and Bronny has been demoted to the G-League several times and doesn’t appear to have a bright future in Los Angeles. It’s reasonable to assume Buss’s frustration with James hasn’t only gotten worse since the 2024 Draft.
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