Bronny James will forgo his remaining college eligibility and remain in the 2024 NBA draft, his agent Rich Paul said ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Jonathan Givony.
James, 19, has until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday to make his intentions clear ahead of the June 26-27 draft.
In April, James, the son of NBA star LeBron James, declared for the draft, maintaining his college eligibility and entered the NCAA transfer portal. He was expected to turn pro after being cleared by the NBA’s Fitness to Play Panel earlier this month.
Bronny James suffered cardiac arrest during training last July.
Bronny’s draft stock indicates he will be selected sometime in the second round. According to Shams Charania of The AthleticThe Phoenix Suns, whose only pick is 22nd overall, will hold a workout for Bronny this week.
Despite numerous invitations, Bronny is only expected to work for a few teams, including the Suns and Los Angeles Lakers.
Paul made this clear to NBA teams in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes that his client wouldn’t sign a two-way deal and he expects Bronny to be on the active roster.
“Bronny [draft] the reach is wide”, Paulo told ESPN. “He’s a very good prospect with a lot of room for growth. It just takes one team. I don’t care where that team is – it could be No. 1 or No. 58 – [but] I care about the plan, the development. The team strategy, opportunity and financial commitment. That’s why I’m not making a two-way deal. Every team understands that.”
As Bronny gets closer to entering the NBA, there has been a lot of speculation about his father’s future. LeBron has a player option deadline of June 29th and some teams may be thinking that if they draft Bronny, they have a good chance of signing LeBron.
The Lakers’ only pick this year is 55th overall. Paul said he wouldn’t be upset if the Lakers moved on from Bronny. He wants his client to be in the right situation to get his NBA career off to a positive start. He understands that Bronny is not his father and that there is a chance he won’t even be drafted.
“I’m not putting unrealistic expectations on Bronny. It is far from a finished product. where situations didn’t make sense and we needed to not get drafted, that was fine.”
