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After struggling in limited minutes at the NBA level, Bronny James was demoted to the G League and the South Bay Lakers on Thursday.
But the move comes with a catch.
James will only play for the South Bay Lakers, who played in the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, just down the road from Los Angeles, when they have a home game.
When South Bay has an away game, James will either sit out or return to play for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA.
Why is that the case?
Because the South Bay Lakers live a much different lifestyle than their NBA affiliate. Much like minor league baseball, the NBA G League is not glamorous.
It’s a league full of gritty, hard-working players hoping to get their shot in the NBA. There are no chartered panes. No five-star hotels or restaurants. You’re there to play basketball, and nothing else.
Don’t believe us? Check out this excerpt from author Alex Squadron’s book Life in the G.
In 2010, Grizzlies seven-footer Hasheem Thabeet was assigned to the D-League’s Dakota Wizards. As the former number two overall pick out of the University of Connecticut (UConn), he was the highest draft pick ever sent to the minors by an NBA team. During one road trip, the Wizards were getting ready to play a game when the twenty-three-year-old Thabeet realized he didn’t have his shoes—they had been left at the previous stop on their trip. At UConn, as with the Grizzlies, someone on staff packed up all the shoes, usually bringing multiple options for each player. With the Dakota Wizards, players were responsible for their own belongings. It would have been easy enough for Thabeet to borrow shoes or hustle to a local mall, except that he wore a whopping size 18. There was no way, under the time constraints, that the team was going to be able to find a pair that big. So Thabeet had to miss the Wizards’ next game. Reason: no shoes. Since the D-League attracted so little media attention, his absence was able to fly under the radar.
Hasheem Thabeet was a genuine superstar when he entered the NBA. He was expected to be a star player for the Grizzlies, and even he was forced to rough it.
So as you can imagine, there likely aren’t many exceptions going to be made for Bronny James on the road.
How do you avoid that problem?
Well, if you’re the Lakers, the answer is to just not send James on the road at all. He’ll continue to bounce back and forth between teams, all while not playing a single G League away game.
By all accounts, Bronny James seems like a good kid. He works hard. He’s stayed out of trouble, and maybe someday he’ll be a viable NBA player.
But right now, that’s not the case, and it’s ridiculous to watch him get treated as if he’s somehow above all the other players trying to make a name for themselves with South Bay.