Stephen A. Smith Slams LeBron James After Son Bronny Dropped From Mock Draft

LeBron James' son Bronny has had a rocky road to the court in the past year. Last July, Bronny suffered a cardiac arrest during a practice session, throwing his University of Southern California debut into question. He recovered and is now a freshman at the school, and while he may be a few years away from graduating, questions have already arisen about where he'll end up in the NBA and if he and his dad will end up being teammates.

Every year, ESPN creates a mock draft for the NBA with some of the biggest college players of the moment. Naturally, with his built-in talent and compelling story, Bronny was a part of that conversation. But his name was recently removed from the 2024 mock draft, and instead experts project he'll be drafted in 2025.

Bronny's dad responded to the news in since-deleted social media posts, but some have taken exception with the star's approach to the issue. "Can y'all please just let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball?" he said, per USA Today. "The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do. If y’all don’t know he doesn’t care what a mock draft says, he just works! Earned, not given!”

"And to all the other kids out there striving to be great, just keep your head down, blinders on, and keep grinding," the four-time NBA champ added. "These mock drafts don't matter one bit! I promise you! Only the work matters! Let’s talk real basketball, people!”

Meanwhile, ESPN's NBA Draft analyst Jonathan Givony explained the outlet's decision to remove Bronny from this year's professional prospects.

"I love Bronny James' game still," he said on NBA Today. "We have to remember that this kid missed four months with a heart issue starting in July. It really seemed to have derailed his season." Bronny returned to the court for his first game with the USC Trojans on Dec. 10.

"He’s one of the best defenders in the freshman class," Givony added. “If Bronny James comes back for his sophomore season, we’re going to see a completely different guy. We’re going to see someone that really could be a lottery pick still.”

LeBron himself received criticism after Bronny's removal from the mock draft, most notably from ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith.

"This is all his fault—all of it," Smith said bluntly on First Take. "When we get to Bronny James, that kid has done nothing but work hard and try to get on this game and all of this other stuff. Any attention that he’s warranted has been because of his daddy."

Smith went on to blast the elder James for building up so much hype for the 19-year-old freshman.

"When you’re LeBron James and you put the word out that you want to be with him, and you put the word out that you want to play with him, and you put the word out that you’d be willing to go to any NBA team that picks him up, knowing the power of LeBron James and how influential he can be, now you've got to wonder what team would draft Bronny James just so they can get LeBron James at age 40 or 41," he noted.

As for LeBron's emotions regarding Bronny's mock draft elimination, Smith didn't want to hear any of it. "You're gonna tweet about folks needing to leave your son alone? You did that. LeBron is entirely and completely culpable for any kind of critique coming in Bronny's direction," he concluded. "I'm just saying [to] own it. It's you; it's not the media."

Fans similarly called out LeBron for putting unnecessary pressure on his son. After Bleacher Report shared the news on Instagram, people in the comments questioned why he was so upset.

"Why [is] Bron acting like he hasn’t been pushing the whole 'playing with Bronny' narrative for a decade?" one person wrote. Another one pointed out "Only Bron would publicly hype his son up and then get upset when people are critical."

One fan commended LeBron's passion and wished his son well, but seemingly laid blame at the father's feet. "Good luck to Bronny. As a father I understand having a love and vision for your kid; I do that myself," they wrote. "However, I think LeBron James has caused this problem and now he’s trying to do what he does best: blame and point a finger at others."

Another called LeBron's desire to let Bronny enjoy college basketball a "strange request" as "He’s been the only person pushing Bronny to the league this whole time.”

The news announcement on the Official NBA Buzz Instagram garnered similar reactions. "Just about two months ago he was saying his son could play for the Lakers. Bron [is] hilarious," one fan commented. Another said that while LeBron can say what he wants, the Lakers star is "putting pressure on Bronny by saying s--t like 'Bronny could be in the league right now' or 'Bronny could play for us right now,'" adding he "needs to take his advice and just let his son ball."

Another fan had more pointed criticism of the NBA champ. "Bron, this is your fault. You should’ve been letting Bronny be a kid instead of pushing his greatness," they wrote. "He wasn’t even the best player on his high school team. Now that he doesn’t have you to coddle his steps at USC you wanna take your frustrations out on the people paid to evaluate Bronny’s potential at the next level. Let him stay and develop himself more."

USC's next game will be against Washington State University on Feb. 29.