Rising media darling and debutante, and heir apparent to all things basketball, Bronny James, son of Lebron James, has narrowed his final list of prospective schools down to three—and the University of Memphis (UofM) is not one of them (despite a very early offer).
Frankly, this is in the best interests of all parties involved. Let’s explore how and why.
NIL Money Shortfall
Bronny would require too much of whatever NIL money UofM could generate, and even then places like USC could produce far more. And tell me it’s not all about branding and the Benjamins when Bronny commits to USC to be close to his dad in Hollywood, only to one-and-done to go to the Lakers and start working on an even worse iteration of Space Jam with his dad.
Bad Noise
Bronny entering collegiate ball is prime fodder for the talking head cartoon provocateurs (looking at you, Stephen A., Bayless, and Cowherd), and Memphis doesn’t need these caricatures of themselves screaming about Bronny all day, every day. In fact, since the dust has settled since the Wiseman drama, Memphis is very intentionally trying to fly very much under the radar.
Too Many Cooks
Remember when, more or less, Keelon Lawson, father of the much-touted and -recruited Lawson sons, was hired as an assistant coach at the UofM during the Pastner era? Remember how that penultimately concluded with the Tubby Smith era? Remember when Penny, Larry Brown, and Rasheed Wallace were all somehow on the same college coaching staff? Now imagine all the cooks added to the kitchen when Bronny joins your program: Kings James himself, the media (see: Bad Noise above), the Athletic Director and administration, NCAA, NBA, agents, network executives, etc. How many minutes Bronny was or wasn’t getting would be a constant negotiation amongst numerous parties. And imagine how this would impact the locker room.
Bronny Wouldn’t Have Made Us Better
In fact, because of the reasons listed above, he would have made us worse. Bronny is that false unicorn whose speculative valuation far exceeds reality simply because those valuating themselves want to believe the hype. And at the risk of sounding critical, we offer an observational reality concerning Penny’s coaching: the level of recruits we get or do not get does not translate to success or failure, respectively. And Bronny’s just not that hot—and he definitely has no fever.
This is likely for the best for Bronny, too, largely because of the reasons listed above. Moreover, he doesn’t need Penny like other prospects do—he’s the son of only the second man to save the universe by beating cartoon alien monsters. This means it works out for LeBron, too, as we’re definitely predicting that Bronny will be a Trojan come next season.
