With the regular season of college basketball coming to a conclusion, there are many speculations about whether USC basketball’s Bronny James will join the 2024 NBA draft. The son of Los Angeles Lakers great LeBron James has not achieved the success that many expected, and the Trojans sit last in the Pac-12 Conference.

On Monday, Bronny was eliminated entirely from a 2024 NBA mock draft, prompting LeBron to take to Twitter with a series of messages in favor of his kid, the first of which included a quote from the mock draft link:

“Can you please let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball?” Regardless of what he decides to do, the work and results will speak for themselves. If you don’t know, he doesn’t care what a mock draft says; he simply WORKS! “Earned Not Given!”

Following that, LeBron sent out another tweet:

“And to all the other kids out there who want to be great, just keep your head down, blinders on, and keep grinding. These mock drafts don’t matter at all! I promise you! ONLY THE WORK MATTERS!! “Let’s talk real basketball, people!”

Bronny James’ inconsistent season at USC

There are numerous reasons why Bronny James might be better off playing one more year of college. After experiencing a heart collapse in the summer of 2023, he missed some time before being medically cleared.

In 19 games at USC, he has an average of 5.5 points on 37% shooting and scored only two points in the Trojans’ recent win against UCLA.

Jonathan Givony of ESPN, who produced the mock draft that everyone is talking about featuring Jeremy Woo, explained why he withdrew him and added him to the 2025 NBA mock draft instead:

Simply put, Bronny James may benefit from remaining another year with the USC basketball program. Nonetheless, LeBron James is only advocating for his son and asking people to allow him to play basketball.

After all, it’s not even March yet, and the 2024 NBA Draft is only a few months away from becoming a topic of discussion.