Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about Bronnie James lastly. He's still
Speaker 1: in high school and we've talked about him multiple times before,
Speaker 1: but he's lighting the basketball world on fire and his
Speaker 1: play is getting better.
Speaker 2: But I'm not really talking about that. I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: All of the where is Bronnie James going to school rhetoric?
Speaker 1: And now he has narrowed his choices down to three schools,
Speaker 1: Ohio State, Oregon, and USC probably now just Oregon in
Speaker 1: Ohio State. But the Athletic just dropped a massive think
Speaker 1: piece I think it's their third one this year on
Speaker 1: Bronnie James. So they know where their bread is buttered.
Speaker 1: They know that Bronnie James moves the needle, but they
Speaker 1: are detailing the dilemma that he faces in picking a college.
Speaker 1: The problem, as the article points out, is that if
Speaker 1: you get Brownie, you probably get the whole circus. There's
Speaker 1: no like you just don't get Bronny and then nothing else.
Speaker 1: You're not getting him as a player. You're getting every
Speaker 1: game on national TV, all of the media in the world,
Speaker 1: all of the scrutiny on Earth. It's catch twenty two.
Speaker 1: As for me, as an Oregon fan, I have zero
Speaker 1: interest in Bronnie James. We are not ready for that
Speaker 1: level of smoke. We are not ready for every single
Speaker 1: game on national TV. What if he doesn't perform well?
Speaker 1: What if your team doesn't perform well? What if his
Speaker 1: season is a train wreck? What if you're not playing
Speaker 1: him and your losing? And how many games is Lebron
Speaker 1: James going to go to? How many is he going
Speaker 1: to show up to? How is that going to impact
Speaker 1: the fans that go to that game? Probably a lot?
Speaker 1: Is Lebron James Junior worth the headache? The Athletic surveyed
Speaker 1: eight anonymous college coaches, and one of them had some
Speaker 1: real things to say. The expectation doesn't match the talent level,
Speaker 1: or at least not yet, and that is where it
Speaker 1: gets messy.
Speaker 2: Hmm.
Speaker 1: The expectation doesn't match the talent level, and that is
Speaker 1: where it gets messy. One coach said he couldn't even
Speaker 1: get on the phone with Bronnie James because it was
Speaker 1: going to take an incredibly long time in order for
Speaker 1: him to be able to even reach out to his
Speaker 1: mom or his PR team in Bronnie James, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: is a top forty player.
Speaker 2: He's improving, but there are probably.
Speaker 1: Ten players at his position in his own class rated
Speaker 1: higher than him. All eight coaches said, as it stands,
Speaker 1: the ones that were pulled, he would not start on
Speaker 1: their teams or any likely twenty five top twenty five
Speaker 1: program in the country. He can ball, but he is
Speaker 1: not a starter, according to those eight coaches, and it's
Speaker 1: probably too much to ask an all American play style
Speaker 1: from a freshman. Right, You're probably going to sit him
Speaker 1: at least a little bit, But he's not going to
Speaker 1: be a four year player. So what are we really
Speaker 1: talking about with Bronnie James. We're not getting Kad Cunningham
Speaker 1: out of Bronnie James. Another coach said this, Bronnie is,
Speaker 1: in essence, a four star player with a five star name.
Speaker 1: If it were a no brainer, he'd be signed by
Speaker 1: Duke by now. It would be done or Kentucky. There's
Speaker 1: a reason he's not going to Kentucky. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's true. Honestly, I don't know if that's I
Speaker 1: actually think that's one hundred percent wrong. I think if
Speaker 1: Bronnie wanted to be at Kentucky, he would be at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I think Bronnie is trying to find the best branding
Speaker 1: place for him where they trust the coach and that
Speaker 1: the coach will prioritize him being on the court. They
Speaker 1: will allow him to make mistakes early and play through them,
Speaker 1: rather than being like Dan Hurley and benching his players
Speaker 1: every time they do something wrong. There programs that would
Speaker 1: concede something like that. Yes, we just said, there's three
Speaker 1: programs that are on his list. Now that he's narrowed
Speaker 1: it down, USC, Ohio State, and Oregon, which happens to
Speaker 1: be my alma mater. I can feel that. Or he
Speaker 1: will be an Oregon Duck. In my bones, I can
Speaker 1: feel it. He's already a Nike athlete. It makes already
Speaker 1: so much sense. And Bron said he's already spoken to
Speaker 1: Dana Altman and he knows that there is mutual interest.
Speaker 1: And I believe two things. One, Bronnie James is won
Speaker 1: and done. He's not going to sit around and wait
Speaker 1: for Lebron James to collect dust while he's seasoning in
Speaker 1: the college realm. I think he's going to be in
Speaker 1: and out. And Lebron James is set a timetable right.
Speaker 1: The most important thing of all for Lebron is to
Speaker 1: play with Bronni. Bron's contract with the Lakers is up
Speaker 1: the same year that Bronni is eligible for the draft.
Speaker 1: Do you think Lebron James is going to extend with
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Bronn is just gonna hang out at
Speaker 1: Ohio State for.
Speaker 2: A second year. No, absolutely not. The athletic thinks.
Speaker 1: No one thinks Bronni is actually a one and done player,
Speaker 1: nor does his current recruiting rank. Only one college freshman
Speaker 1: selected in last year's NBA Draft ranked below twenty third
Speaker 1: as a high school prospect, Baylor's Jeremy Sohan, who played
Speaker 1: high school ball in Europe because of COVID, and as
Speaker 1: stephen A said, always says, and I get all that,
Speaker 1: but that also brings me to my second point. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter what his ranking is. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: one bit. He's a first rounder because his dad is
Speaker 1: included in this first round package.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: If he was not connected to Lebron James in any way, yeah,
Speaker 1: he'd probably be Josh Hart. But if he gets drafted
Speaker 1: by the Rockets, call Lebron the next Kakim Eliju one,
Speaker 1: the next Rocket. Great, the circus will come to town
Speaker 1: and it will be big dump trucks full of cash.
Speaker 1: We've never seen a duo like this in NBA history before,
Speaker 1: especially one really revolving around Lebron James, the greatest player
Speaker 1: of his generation, most popular NBA player on the planet.
Speaker 2: And I don't even think we can probably predict the
Speaker 2: ra Meeks right.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine a sponsored prop bet for Lebron and
Speaker 1: Bronni James.
Speaker 2: That'd be chaos. Could you imagine the ratings?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the features that they're going to do.
Speaker 1: He's not the ordinary recruit because we've never seen a
Speaker 1: situation quite like this before. I cannot end the show
Speaker 1: without talking about Lebron James Senior. I can't if I
Speaker 1: talk about Junior. I have to talk about Senior because
Speaker 1: that's how he wants it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday night, Lebron pulled a malice in the Palace
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. He was ready to scrap against a pedestrian,
Speaker 1: a random civilian sitting in the stands. Things could have
Speaker 1: gotten ugly.
Speaker 2: What happened.
Speaker 1: So he's walking off the court at halftime and Crypto
Speaker 1: dot Com arena and a guy heckles Lebron. What does
Speaker 1: he say to Lebron James. He says this, Hey Bron,
Speaker 1: Hey Bron. He says it from a floor seat, by
Speaker 1: the way, which is crazy. You better get your shit together,
Speaker 1: and then he hits him with that, with that receding
Speaker 1: ass hairline. You better get your shit together, with that
Speaker 1: receding ass.
Speaker 2: Hairline of yours. Oh my god, Oh no, Bron stopped.
Speaker 2: You could see it.
Speaker 1: He lets it sink in, and then he rushes the
Speaker 1: heckler with blackness in his eyes like the kind that
Speaker 1: my dog gets when she's ready to attack me in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night because I pet her the
Speaker 1: wrong way, like Bron had to get held back from
Speaker 1: coming after a pedestrian. And then the as this heckler
Speaker 1: is ushered out, he goes, yeah, look him, he mad
Speaker 1: you sick right now. There's there's only one thing that
Speaker 1: one can gather from this.
Speaker 2: One. Barkley has a good idea. He said this.
Speaker 1: He said that every player should get a hall pass
Speaker 1: and beat one fans ass. And that's probably one of
Speaker 1: the best ideas that I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: But what we know is also the Lebron has a
Speaker 2: sensitive area.
Speaker 1: He has a touchy spot, something that gets him riled up.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately that sensitive area just keeps moving back and
Speaker 1: back and back every every year, just a couple more inches.
Speaker 2: That's all the time that we have for the eat check.
Speaker 1: Come back Monday, which means Tuesday for you for an
Speaker 1: all new episode episode. Trade deadline is less than three
Speaker 1: weeks away. Do not forget to follow us on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Trista Crik and at this heat check on TikTok.
Speaker 2: Please tell your friends, find me on
Speaker 1: Instagram Trista Underscore Crik as well, and we'll see you
Speaker 1: next time.