LeBron James and his wife Savannah confirmed to Sports Illustrated that their son Bronny is leaning toward playing college basketball rather than opting for the NBA G-League, Overtime Elite, an overseas league or other professional options in 2023–24.
“Bronny wants to have a college career,” Savannah James said. “I think it would be really cool for him to start with collegiate basketball, just to start his legacy there.”
LeBron agreed that he believes his son “wants to go the college route.”
The 17-year-old Bronny has received interest from Memphis, Ohio State, USC and others. Bronny is one of the top combo guards in the country in the class of 2023, and he’s expected to continue to hear from more programs as his senior season approaches.
Despite all the hype around Bronny and the speculation about his collegiate playing future, LeBron was vocal when asked about his son’s potential college destination.
“He hasn’t taken 1 visit yet and has only had a few calls with coaches and universities. When Bronny makes his choice you’ll hear it from him,” James tweeted.
Bronny almost certainly will face comparisons to his famous father. When LeBron was asked by SI if he believes his desire to play alongside Bronny in the NBA creates unfair expectations on his older son, LeBron was adamant in his response.
“I don’t give a s--- what nobody says,” LeBron said. “Our quest and our journey is not predicated on what everybody said. You going to have five people that love you out of 10. Then you have five people that hate you out of 10. That’s just the way of the land. No matter what you do.
“You can be a guy who literally goes to work at Starbucks, and there’s going to be four or five customers that come in and hate the way that you made that chai tea latte. It’s just how it works. And the faster you can realize that happens, the better off you’ll be, because you’re not going to respond or give that too much energy,” James continued.
Fair or not, expectations will be placed on Bronny as he enters the next stage of his basketball career. While it appears that college basketball will be the next step of his journey, his specific destination is anybody’s guess.
