Bronny James and nepotism in sports

Cam, Zimmel, and Jeff Barker discuss the Bronny James signing and the uproar over nepotism in sports.

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Back to the Craigway Show. Connectwith Craig through the text line by texting
Texas to age one five three zerofollowed by your message. Standard message and
data rates may apply. Getting closerand closer to that holiday weekend, I'm
glad to have you with us hereon the Craigway Show. Wednesday, July

(00:32):
third, extended holiday for us hereat the Zone. No local programming on
Thursday and Friday. Back on Monday, and that includes Craig Way, who
returns from his vacation. No showon Tuesday due to the Round Rock Express
playing during our showtime, but thenall systems go on Wednesday. Cameron Parker

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here, Andrew Simmel from San Antonioand also Jeff Parker from CBS Austin in
studio with a Now, you mentionedyou are a California kid. Are you
a Laker fan? I know you'rea Dodger fan or are you a Lakers
fan? Of course? Okay,I'm all the original LA teams and then
a Raiders fan in the NFL becausethere was no NFL team growing up,

(01:14):
all the original LA teams, ashe gets, once from Brooklyn and one
from Minnesota. Okay, I gotit. Yeah, Okay, fairpoint.
Original to my lifetime, even myparents' lifetime. I think I think they've
been grandfathered in past that. Youknow, we're not We're not worried about
the Lakes in Minnesota anymore. Thisis Hollywood, Andrew. Do you have
a take on the Lakers counting theirtitles from Minneapolis? Oh? It drives

(01:38):
me insane? Are you crazy?Oh? Yeah, Oh it drives me
in crazy because look, Oklahoma Citydoesn't get to count the seventy nine championship
from Seattle, So why do theLakers get to call the ones from the
Miking era? Those are Minnesota championshipsthat they just got stolen to La Man.
I don't even like that they getto claim Elgin Baylor. He started

(01:59):
as a Minneapolis Lake. That's whatwe should remember it before. So yeah,
no, I have I have itbothers me a lot. Why would
the Thunder not claim that? Likeif it's the same core, Like this
team picked up and moved just likeany individual would. I don't have to
leave my accolades from another town,like anything that I did in Mississippi and

(02:20):
I was honored for or whatever.Like if I let's say I wont an
award there. I wish that happened, but let's let let's say it did.
I don't have to leave that awardthere, like, it's still it's
still me. I know it's notan apples to apples comparison, but why
would why would you not claim thattitle if the franchise is still the same.
I mean, plenty of franchises havemoved like, that's not a that's
not a new thing. Oh no, it's not a new thing. But
the Lakers started that. Actually,the Dodgers started this when it comes to

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taking their titles and moving to adifferent city. Look, is it the
end of the world. No?Is it something that I feel very passionately
about. Of course, of course, because the Minnesota North starts doing the
same thing. They go to Dallas, they win a title, and just
Minnesota gat anything for that. Nope, just forgotten history. Just for godden
history. Oh man, I didn'texpect to get into this. This is

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this is good. It's a fairpoint because okay, see does not count.
They don't have any banners up fromthe Super SONCS era. I mean,
the Charlotte Hornets don't have any bannersup from the New Orleans Hornets errors,
so, but the Lakers still docount. I mean, in the
Lakers defense, they did have Lakersacross the chess when they won those titles
in Minneapolis. And also you mentionedElgin Baylor. I mean, remember Kareem

(03:29):
didn't begin his career as a Laker, but he's considered a Laker. See,
Okay, And that's fine. Ifa player wants to move, that's
fine. But as a non organization, you know what I mean, like,
come on, what do we do? And they don't even celebrate my
ketting. They count the titles,but they don't put a statue out in
the front, they don't put thenumber in the look. I just feel
like Minnesota consistently turns into this minorleague area and all the great teams they

(03:53):
move out, they go win theirtitles somewhere else, and Minnesota's left the
dirt. I'm just saying, tellus, I really feel Andrew, let's
stay with the Lakers here because theydid draft lebron James Son Bronnie James with
the fifty fifth overall pick, givehim a guaranteed contract four years over seven
million dollars. That fourth year isa team option, but Bronnie along with

(04:15):
Dalton Connect was introduced yesterday as partof Lakers Rookie Day, and here's JJ
Reddick's comments about Brinnie James and Iwant to get both y'all's thoughts after this
with Bronnie. I just I wantto clarify one thing you just said,
which is rob and I did notgive Bronnie anything. Bronnie has earned this
right. Bronnie talks about his hardwork. Bronnie has earned this through hard

(04:39):
work, and for us prioritizing playerdevelopment, we view Bronnie as like case
study one because his base level offeel, athleticism, point of attack,
defender, shooting, passing, there'sa lot to like about his game,
and as we sort of build outour player development program holistically, he's going

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to have a great opportunity to becomean excellent NBA player. The two sides
of this, Jeff, of course, there's a side that he's not picked
if he doesn't have James in theback of his jersey. But the other
side is, well, it's thefifty fifth pick in the draft, Like
whoever they were going to pick mostlikely would not have even made their roster
in the first place. Yeah,exactly, And I think as a Laker

(05:24):
fan, what I said to somebodyon after Day one of the draft was,
Okay, getting Dalton Connect at seventeen, I thought was a great pick,
which then made it that much moredigestible knowing they were going to take
Brownie at fifty five, because you'retaking a flyer on somebody at fifty five
to begin with, like, golike if you're a fan of a certain

(05:45):
team, go through and over thelast twenty years, look at the guys
that you've picked with your second roundpicks, and I know some of them
have worked out pretty have worked outpretty well, like earlier in the second
round, like I believe Draymond wasthe second rounder. Obviously there's the famous
story with with Jokic two of youknow, he gets announced on the scroll
during a Taco bell commercial. Soyes, there are second round picks that

(06:08):
work out, But fifty five isbasically the back end of the draft.
Like I think Manu Ginobili was alate second round pick. I mean you
can count on one, two,I don't know, maybe a couple hands.
It's a handful of guys that haveturned out to be star players or
even just really like true borderline allstar contributors for a long time in the

(06:30):
NBA that have been picked that latein the draft. But yeah, getting
Dalton connect was huge because that's aguy that you think with his age and
experience and you know, just scoringability that obviously he proved at the lower
levels at it was at Northern Coloradoor whatever smaller school he was at before
he got to Tennessee and then didit again. There's SEC player of the
Year. Then you could at leastgo all right, at least they made

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a pick in the first round thatyou think could help you win immediately,
or could at least contribute immediately,and then go take a flyer on Brownie.
Again, that's what you're doing,is you're you're throwing stuff at the
wall and hoping it sticks and thatback end and hoping that you somehow find
a guy like a Jokic or aGenobili or Draymond Green you mentioned Giannis,

(07:11):
like all these guys you know thathave worked out from the second round.
And again I'll say this, Iknow we're gonna talk a little bit more
about the you know, people cryingnepotism and all that kind of stuff.
Well, there are so many peoplein pretty much every industry that have gotten
positions or have gotten opportunities because ofwho their dad is, who their mom

(07:32):
is, who their grandparents are,heck, who their great grandparents are,
who they know, I mean,unfortunately, Like I just find it a
little disheartening that like all of asudden, we're all of a sudden we're
picking and choosing, like because it'sLebron now we're frustrated about it, or
maybe it's because it's like that farin front of our face. I mean,
if you went through NBA front offices, NFL front offices, go through

(07:55):
the Lakers front office and tell methat, and tell me that the you
know, oh, it's just nepotismwith Lebron, Like, like, I
don't know, why do we Iguess what I'm getting at is, why
do we just want to be madabout it now? Like I don't love
it. I don't know, Idon't feel really that strongly one way or
the other. I just think likepeople that are that fired up about the
quote unquote nepotism aspect of it arealso a lot of the people that are

(08:18):
just gonna kind of be mad abouta lot of things all the time.
I mean, looking at the Lakers, Genie Buss, the daughter of doctor
Jerry Buss, the Jones, theJones family in Dallas. Stephen Jones will
likely run the team after Jerry Jones. He already is running a large aspect
of it. Robert Kraft's gonna endup handing the keys over to his son.
Bill Belichick made his son the defensivecoordinator exactly a bowl cut in Las

(08:41):
Vegas. His dad Al Davis,Right, you know, it's all part
of the game. And there's beentons in tons of athletes whose sons have
played and get drafted on the summerleague teams. It's a different story,
but then it doesn't always work outfor them. I think just because it's
Bronnie James and we've heard about himfor such a long time, I think
it does just kind of like it'sthe same thing with the Lebron MJ take.

(09:03):
It's like, your take is notgoing to change no matter what Lebron
does this year. If you thinkMJ's the goat, you're gonna say he's
the goat. If you think Lebron'sthe goat, he's the goat. So
when you're bringing the storyline Ronnie Jamesand it gets all his attention. I
think just NBA fans who aren't lebronfans just don't understand why it's getting so
much attention. But it's a goodstoryline. And speaking of fifty fifth pick

(09:26):
in the draft, look at theSpurs the last ten years, in draft
picks in between fifty and sixty whereBronny was selected, you got what Kennedy
Chandler twenty twenty two. Okay,Trey Jones, who might be the best
second round pick they've had in thelast couple of years. Quindaie Weatherspoon with
the forty ninth pick in the draft, Jason blossom Game the fifty ninth pick,

(09:52):
Cody Llane the fifty fifth pick.See, you're not building around guys
like that, exactly exactly. Outof all those guys, what Trey Jones
is really the only one that thatturned into a contributor right now? Yeah,
and he's he's played well, Butif they were better right now,
would he be playing? Probably not. I mean, was a fifty fifth

(10:13):
pick. I'm just twenty eleven seventhbest player on those teams at best.
Twelve years, the last twelve yearsthey've had what two second round draft picks.
Actually turn into something, and that'sactually probably if you look at all
the other teams, that's probably prettygood compared to other teams who have been

(10:35):
drafting in the second round. Yeah, and I was laughing about what you
said about the goat conversation because itreally is. It really is just like
politics. Yeah, It's like peopleare gonna believe whatever they believe on either
side, and they'll argue about ittill they're blue in the face, but
nobody's changing anyone's mind. And I'mone of those. I'm not going to
change my mind. I have mypick. Everyone else has their pick.
That's that's just how it works.And it's the same thing with the Brownie

(10:58):
James situation, although I do worryand so at the beginning of the show
about him on the human level becauseof the pressure that will be attached to
his name going forward, because everyone'sgoing to watch every every single Laker game,
every South Bay game and just completelydissect and pick apart his game.
And it is fair because you're aprofessional athlete and that's what media does.
But at the same time, it'sgoing to be overanalyzed more than any other

(11:22):
draft pick in this draft. ElSegundo is going to be the spot to
be man the South Bay Lakers aregoing to be the hottest ticket in town
for any League team. Yeah,I know, he will be the probably
the most famous G League player andprobably their history, I would think.
But I don't worry too much aboutBrownie specifically, Like, I mean,

(11:43):
he seems like a pretty level headed, well rounded kid, and I think
people are quick to forget what hewent through personally less than a year ago
with the cardiac arrest. And youknow, I mean not to mention,
you know that his life was potentiallyon the line, of course, when
something like that is that serious andyou go through through an episode like that,
But the fact that he came back, I mean, I think that's

(12:05):
what they can kind of point backto as well as like, all right,
he's gone through that adversity, Likesure he didn't grow up with the
same you know, childhood that Lebrondid, of course, but he's still
grown up being Lebron James Junior.Like he's known that his entire life.
And you know, they've they've bouncedaround to different cities and things like that.

(12:26):
So I think it's maybe people likeus that don't totally understand it,
because how would we. I mean, we're just we're just regular people.
Yeah that I think we kind offorget. You know, this guy's been
he's been growing up like this hisentire life. And you know, lebron
seems like an incredible father. Imean it seems like they have they have
a great home life and all that, which is really important. So I
and again, every time I've heardBronie talk, he's very well spoken and

(12:50):
chooses his words carefully and and justseems like a really good kid. Let's
close out I Number two up nextto give away free tickets to Jelly Role
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