Michael Wilbon Claims ESPN Show Refused to Cover Lakers' Bronny James

Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Bronny James, son of 21-time All-Star Lakers power forward LeBron James, has had a controversial debut season in the pros.

L.A. team vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka took a flier on the 6-foot-2 USC product in last summer's 2024 NBA Draft, selecting the younger James with the No. 55 pick at the end of the second round.

Since then, James has played sparingly for Los Angeles proper, spending most of his Lakers tenure with the club's G League affiliate in El Segundo, the South Bay Lakers.

Although James hasn't gotten much run at the NBA level on most nights, he has thrived in the G League.

Bronny James could not be stopped! The @Lakers draftee recorded a career-high in scoring and posted his third 30+ point performance this season. 👏🙌 pic.twitter.com/kxLaaZsVSs
— NBA G League (@nbagleague) March 25, 2025

James has come under media criticism for receiving unfair favoritism from L.A. and the league at large, by benefit of being the son of the most famous basketball player in the world. Pundits have called out the Lakers for guaranteeing a standard roster spot to essentially a long-term developmental player.

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Stunningly, according to Bobby Burack of OutKick, James has been the subject of more coverage this year from ESPN and Fox Sports 1 than All-NBA First Team Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

"Our business is a piece of shit a lot of days."@RealMikeWilbon is one of the only people on the planet who both LeBron & Stephen A. admire. In an exclusive interview with @Outkick, Wilbon discussed their beef and much more.

You will want to read this:https://t.co/0bmWDd9TMu
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) March 28, 2025

During a conversation with ESPN's Michael Wilbon, the longtime co-host of the Worldwide Leader's beloved "Pardon The Interruption," Burack brought up this stat.

"I didn't even think about that. It's true," Wilbon said. "They talked about him more than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That's pandering. It's all pandering... Let me be clear: our business [sports media] is a piece of s--- a lot of days."

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Wilbon went on to call out the modern sports world's approach to gathering and digesting news.

"There is nobody enforcing standards or having tough conversations," Wilbon elaborated. "This is what happens when you no longer have functioning newsrooms, because everyone is working from hotel rooms, from their bedrooms, and maybe even from their beds. People are not in newsrooms anymore or a studio, where you can call them out on their bulls---. That's a problem."

Wilbon was careful to not personally put down Bronny James' performance or LeBron James' handling of his son's rookie season. He went so far as to point out that he and his "PTI" cohost Tony Kornheiser have avoided covering the Bronny drama at the level of their ESPN colleagues.

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"But again, I was not critical of LeBron as a dad, at all," Wilbon said. "I feel differently about this than most. I get it. However, Tony and I didn't need to talk about it publicly. Tony understands it too. His son, Michael, works for him. But we aren't talking about Bronny every day. Hell no."

This year, Bronny has averaged 21.9 points on .443/.380/.815 shooting splits, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.9 steals in 11 regular games with South Bay. That's the kind of superlative output NBA-caliber players produce at the NBAGL level, and points to a bright future.

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