{"id":3382,"date":"2024-11-22T08:47:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2024-11-22T08:47:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:47:45","slug":"earn-his-stripes-with-lebron-james-retirement-lurking-stephen-a-smith-has-advise-for-bronny-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=3382","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEarn his stripes\u2026\u201d With LeBron James retirement lurking, Stephen A. Smith has advise for Bronny James.."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith cautions Bronny James to do the needful as Los Angeles Lakers teammate and father LeBron James approaches retirement.<\/p>\n<div class=\"img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/firstsportz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bronny-James-needs-to-prove-his-worth-with-the-Los-Angeles-Lakers-before-LeBron-James-retires-says-Stephen-A.-Smith.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cEarn his stripes\u2026\u201d With LeBron James retirement lurking, Stephen A. Smith has advise for Bronny James\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"img-info\">\n<p>Bronny James needs to prove his worth with the Los Angeles Lakers before LeBron James retires, says Stephen A. Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"desc\">\n<p><strong>LeBron James<\/strong>\u00a0created NBA history playing alongside his son\u00a0<strong>Bronny James<\/strong>\u00a0for the Los Angeles Lakers. But since then, the younger James has seen sporadic time on the court. Nevertheless, he gets a chunk of playing time with the G-League outfit.<\/p>\n<p>However, those outings have not been very fruitful as he has\u00a0struggled to score efficiently. He has also not held down the defensive side of things in those games either. Lakers two-way contract players outplayed him in both games.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"perfmatters-lazy-youtube\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9H03RsrZ6eM\" data-id=\"9H03RsrZ6eM\" data-query=\"start=1718&amp;feature=oembed\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9H03RsrZ6eM?start=1718&amp;feature=oembed&amp;autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>That has caused many to bring up the nepotism angle again, the primary question being: is he worthy of a place in the NBA? He also holds a four-year contract with most of it already paid out in the form of guaranteed money.<\/p>\n<p>The NELK Boys had ESPN analyst\u00a0<strong>Stephen A. Smith<\/strong>\u00a0on their podcast,\u00a0<em>Full Send Podcast<\/em>. While talking about LeBron James and the time he is left in the NBA, host\u00a0<strong>Aaron Steinberg<\/strong>\u00a0asked the longtime analyst what he thought of the future of\u00a0Bronny James.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote><p><em>Bronny James did not do what it took to earn a spot on an NBA roster. He\u2019s a wonderful kid. But the reality is that now that this has happened\u2026.. at some point you as Bronny, you need to say, \u2018I don\u2019t want this anymore, this was nice\u2026.. but now I gotta go earn my stripes\u2019. It\u2019s on Bronny.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><cite>Stephen A. Smith on Bronny James<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Stephen A. Smith acknowledged that the 20-year-old did not have the best college seasons. But he has to utilize his time in the G-League to\u00a0develop himself. Otherwise, it might be difficult to hold down a roster spot once LeBron James retires.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-stephen-a-smith-reveals-when-he-feels-lebron-james-will-retire\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stephen A. Smith reveals when he feels LeBron James will retire<\/h2>\n<p>Prior to coming to the Bronny James discussion, the question the hosts of the Full Send Podcast asked the analyst was about\u00a0LeBron James. In particular, it was about how long he thinks the\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0superstar is going to play. In response, Smith weighed in:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote><p><em>I think LeBron will retire next year. This season and then next season and then I think he will call it a career. I\u2019m guessing. LeBron\u2019s a top 5 top 6 player in the league right now. I think it\u2019s a lot to ask, to expect him to wanna play after next season, which will be year 23. I think that will be it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><cite>Stephen A. Smith on LeBron James\u2019 retirement<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The 57-year-old analyst acknowledged that many would like to see if the\u00a0four-time champion\u00a0would stick around until his younger son Bronny James would play. But he also knows that it will be too much of a load on the soon-to-be 40-year-old.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single-post\">\n<section class=\"section-intro\">\n<div class=\"selfie-and-desc\">\n<div class=\"desc\">\n<p>The Akron native has made it clear that he will not wait until his \u2018wheels fall off\u2019 moment to decide when to retire. This could indicate that the superstar\u00a0has a plan in his mind. Smith believes that plan is to end it after the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith cautions Bronny James to do the needful as Los Angeles Lakers teammate and father LeBron James approaches retirement. Bronny James needs to prove his&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cEarn his stripes\u2026\u201d With LeBron James retirement lurking, Stephen A. 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