Lakers rookie Bronny James has received heaps of criticism for his lackluster start to his NBA career. Many fans and media personnel pushed narratives suggesting he doesn’t have the tools to be an NBA player. LeBron James has taken a big portion of that criticism too, since many believe he is the only reason Bronny is on the Lakers. However, one statistic in which Bronny reigns superior over his father has left fans mocking the four-time champ.
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Diehard NBA fans engage with each other on Reddit. One user there decided to look into the total plus/minus leaders for the Lakers this season and made a surprising discovery.
For those unaware, plus/minus has become an imperative advanced stat in modern basketball. The metric calculates the impact a player has while on the court. For example, if Bronny played only five minutes but the Lakers outscored the opponent by 10, his plus/minus would be 10. It isn’t contingent on whether the game results in a win or loss.
Regardless, the revelation the Redditor found is that Bronny’s stat is better than his father’s. The 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft holds a total plus/minus of -58, while LeBron’s is at -70. Neither number is anywhere close to desirable, so some fans took the opportunity to crack jokes.
“I’ve seen enough. Trade LeBron, build around Bronny,” one user said. Of course, the sample size isn’t enough to make a legitimate argument, since Bronny has only played 135 minutes. LeBron clearly has a greater impact despite the numbers suggesting otherwise.
Many other fans leaned into the joke and began to add to it. One fan went on to say, “We all have a better plus-minus than them.” Their statement is technically true since every fan’s plus/minus would be zero.
Another fan believes we should be addressing LeBron differently from now on. They commented saying, “LeBron is over. It’s now Bronny’s dad.”
Jokes aside, Bronny is beginning to find his groove in the NBA. He notched a career-high 17 points against the Bucks on 70% shooting. He followed that up with 39 points in his latest game with the South Bay Lakers. The 20-year-old is slowly proving that he belongs in the league despite what fans and statistics show.
