Bronny James Closing In On College Decision ‘Real Soon’

Where will Bronny James play college basketball next season?

That is the one of the burning questions surrounding the high school basketball landscape now that the college season is complete.

James, the son of Lakers star LeBron James, will play for Team USA on Saturday in the Nike
NKE
Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore. (10 p.m. ET, NBATV), and there is speculation he could announce his college choice this weekend.

“I’m sure he will make his decision real soon,” said a person close to him who was not authorized to speak publicly because he is not authorized to speak for the family.

USC, Ohio State and Oregon are among the schools linked to the 6-foot-3 James, who shot 5-of-8 from beyond the arc for 15 points in the recent McDonald’s All-American Game and who is currently projected as the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by ESPN.com. Bronny averaged 14 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game last season at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles, and was a second-team all-league selection.

“Being here with these elite players, I just want to show that I belong, and what I can do,” Bronny James told reporters, per USA Today, adding that he’s focused on how he can “play my game, be confident when I shoot, be smart and play defense.”

LeBron and Savannah James enthusiastically supported Bronny at the McDonald’s Game, and are expected to be in attendance Saturday when the Lakers are off.

Several of James’s Hoop Summit teammates are trying to recruit him to join them in college.

USC-bound guard Isaiah Collier told USA Today he’s “definitely trying” to get James to play for the Ducks..

“Stay home,’ that’s my pitch,” Collier said. “’Why leave LA?’”

USC is based in Los Angeles, near where the James family lives, and where fellow Sierra Canyon star Juju Watkins will attend. Both James and Watkins have NIL deals with Nike, and James also has one with Beats By Dre.

Oregon is a flagship Nike
NKE
program coached by one of the top coaches in the game in Dana Altman.

Oregon commit Jackson Shelstad, a native of West Linn, Oregon, is also making his pitch.

“I was trying to recruit him (Wednesday) morning,” Shelstad said.

“He’s boys with (Oregon signee) Mookie (Cook), he’s signed with Nike,” he added. “Me, Mookie and KJ (Kwame Evans Jr.), all three freshmen coming in love his game, we’d love to play with him. We’re all unselfish, so (I) think it would be a great fit. We’d love to have him at Oregon.”

Shelstad added of James: “He’s a really high IQ player, he shoots the ball well, spaces the floor well. He can play off the ball, on the ball, he plays good defense.”

Ohio State is the school LeBron said he likely would have gone to had he attended college, and LeBron and Bronny took a visit to the Big Ten school last fall.

Bronny said he enjoyed hearing the recruiting pitches.

“It’s fun times,” he said. “It’s good to joke with them. Talking to them, talking to coaches, it’s good to know that they want me there with them. But at the end of the day it’s my decision, and I need to make the right one for me.”

But when a reporter asked James if he had any time frame on a decision, she was cut off by a USA Basketball PR person.

As for the future, LeBron has said he wants to play with — or against — Bronny in the NBA beginning in 2024, when LeBron will turn 40. LeBron has a player option for $50 million with the Lakers for that season.

The Lakers don’t currently have a pick in the 2024 Draft, and the higher Bronny goes in the Draft, the harder it may be for the Lakers to acquire him. It’s generally harder to get a desired player in the first round than the second, or as a free agent. If LeBron and Bronny team up in 2024, it could add major valuation to an NBA franchise.

“I need to be on the floor with my boy,” LeBron told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin in January. “I gotta be on the floor with Bronny.”