Bronny James, son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, made his USC men’s basketball debut just over a week ago. Suffice it to say, it’s been a bit of a rocky start.
Look, we’re not here to rip Bronny James at this stage of his young career. Quite honestly, 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 run-down block in 17 minutes of play against Long Beach State isn’t a terrible debut. Especially when you consider that James is returning to the court just five months after suffering cardiac arrest during a workout.
That said, it’s been a rough go of it for the team and we’re sure little James is disappointed. First, his father upstaged his debut by setting social media on fire by sitting during the National Anthem.
Second, USC ended up losing the game despite having a 15-point lead in the second half.
Next up was Auburn on Sunday, and the (8-2) Tigers beat the Trojans handily, 91-75.
Social media though, was abuzz over a play by Auburn center Dylan Cardwell, in which he dunked on a defenseless James in the second half.
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Bronny James Gets Himself Put On A Poster
Not only did the USC Trojans drop to (0-2) since Bronny James joined the team, but he also suffered a couple of other ignominious highlights.
CBS News reports that USC was outscored by 17 with James on the court in the first half, leading to a 49-35 halftime deficit. Meaning they were +3 with him on the bench.
He fumbled an alley-oop pass in garbage time which prompted the crowd to start chanting, “Overrated!”
And the aforementioned Caldwell? His 11-point performance against James’ Trojans was a career-high.
If Bronny thought he’d be able to forget about the dunk though, Auburn fans weren’t about to let that happen. In fact, they were rather relentless.
“Meet your new daddy,” one fan posted to X with a still of Caldwell’s dunk over James.
“Poster Season in full swing,” another wrote.
Is Drake To Blame?
The folks over at BroBible suggest that Bronny James might be the unfortunate victim of the ‘Drake curse.’ The Canadian rapper is a notorious frontrunner with an extensive history of supporting particular teams or athletes only for them to lose, often against the odds.
Fanduel did an entire top 10 list of instances of the ‘Drake curse.’ There are some instances to the contrary, with Drake shaking off the curse when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship in 2019.
BroBible reports that Drake was spotted in a USC sweatshirt on December 10th, the same day as the team’s collapse to Long Beach State. And the USC athletic department decided to promote it.
“Neither Bronny nor the Trojans can be held responsible for poor play this season,” BroBible quipped. “The Drake Curse made its way to the most prominent university in Los Angeles and USC made a big mistake by embracing his fandom.”
We’re not entirely sure Drake has that kind of sway. If one were to compile a list of important Drakes on this planet, it would look something like this:
- Sir Francis Drake.
- Drake’s Devil Dogs.
- …
- …
- …
- Drake.
- …
- Drake Bell.
Bronny James had 5 points and 2 rebounds in 14 minutes of work against the Tigers.
