LeBron James‘ son Bronny has been regularly making headlines since he announced his University of Southern California stint in the upcoming NCAA season, and for obvious reasons. The NBA community has been keen in anticipation of the father-son duo playing together on the NBA hardwood, as LeBron James enters the dusk of his career. On the other hand, Michael Jordan hurled his son Marcus and Larsa Pippen’s controversial relationship back on the news after publicly disapproving of their union. Amidst all the chaos, Marcus Jordan recently brought up the reports of Bronny James being denied from popular rapper Saweetie’s birthday party, while discussing upbringing of NBA kids with Larsa Pippen.
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Last year, Marcus Jordan sparked a ton of controversy in the NBA community after he started dating his father’s former Chicago Bulls teammate, Scottie Pippen’s ex-wife Larsa Pippen. Apart from the recent uproar following MJ’s disapproval of the relationship, Marcus and Larsa had been going pretty strong. Meanwhile, the couple have even been addressing their relationship dynamics, future plans and a number of other things on their podcast, Separation Anxiety. During a recent episode of the show, Marcus Jordan decided to bring up the example of Bronny James to discuss the issues NBA kids face these days.
Marcus Jordan thanks his upbringing after bringing up Bronny James’ example
Larsa and Marcus have been pretty vocal about taking their relationship to the next step. The couple has adopted a very mature approach to deal with complex relationship dynamics, like Larsa’s parenting of her kids. In fact, Marcus has talked about being a dad himself after seeing Larsa parent her kids.
During a recent episode of their Separation Anxiety podcast, the couple discussed the unique experience of being an NBA kid now versus back in the day. Marcus pointed out that every single move of an NBA star’s kid is now documented on social media. The 32-year-old mentioned how Bronny James being denied entry into Saweetie’s birthday party was blown out of proportion and made into a media spectacle for no reason.
Bronny James and Shareef O'Neal were reportedly denied entrance at Saweetie’s party, per @TMZ_Sports pic.twitter.com/8mwBkuBBOV
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) July 4, 2023
According to Jordan, these things happened to him as well, when Michael Jordan was an NBA superstar. However, there was no social media to circulate these reports, “I grew up in that sweet spot of late 90s and early 2000s when there was no iPhones, social media…I was able to grow up with a very private upbringing, but I feel like NBA kids today don’t necessarily have that luxury. I mean if you look at LeBron’s son Bronny, everywhere he goes there’s cameras…obviously you saw that they got denied at that party[Saweetie’s 30th birthday bash]. It’s funny because I remember those days, I remember when I was a young kid 16-17 years old, trying to get into whatever party was poppin.”
Marcus Jordan also credited his parents for leading a very private life, away from the flashes of cameras. On the other hand, Larsa Pippen pointed out that the treatment of star kids vary from city to city as well. For instance, kids of NBA stars playing in LA, Miami and New York receive much more attention than kids of stars playing in smaller markets, like Oklahoma or Chicago.
Michael Jordan and Juanita Vanoy’s upbringing
Michael Jordan and his ex-wife Juanita Vanoy wanted to keep their kids grounded in reality. Therefore, while keeping them away from media attention and publicity, Juanita even tried to show them how regular people spend their lives by taking them to her childhood home.
That’s one of the many reasons why Jordan and Juanita’s three kids have all become successful and responsible citizens. Even though Marcus hasn’t been able to carve a basketball career for himself, he has been focused on carrying his father’s legacy forward through his business ventures.