Speculation fills the air.
Bronny James ended up going to the Los Angeles Lakers, but his father’s team wasn’t the only one with interest.
“There were four teams outside of the Lakers that had legitimate interest in taking Bronny,” Chris Broussard said on “First Things First.”
“The Clippers, the Timberwolves – which was not as bad of a situation for him, I know they drafted a young point guard too before him – the Suns, but they wanted it because of LeBron and the Raptors.”
The Raptors, Timberwolves and Clippers all had the opportunity to draft Bronny as they were ahead of the Lakers at 31, 37 and 46, respectively.
However, Bronny fell to LeBron and the Lakers at pick No. 55; the Suns were on deck.
The controversy arose prior to the draft when ESPN analyst Bob Myers revealed that the James camp admonished others to avoid drafting the former USC player.
“Rich Paul is calling teams [and saying], ‘Don’t take Bronny James,'” Myers said. “He’s telling them, ‘Do not take him. If you take him, he’s going to Australia.’ So he has a plan and he has a place.”
Broussard later provided his sixth sense regarding the situation.
“I don’t have a problem with this. This is what agents do,” he said.
Broussard drew parallels to Ron Holland II, who had no contact with the Pistons throughout the pre-draft process other than a meeting at the NBA Combine – and he was selected 5th overall by them.
He also reminded viewers about Alex Sarr, who went second to Washington.
“A lot of people thought he would go first,” Broussard said. “For the longest, he was the number one guy in the mock drafts – he refused to work out for Atlanta.”
Despite the other team’s interest in Bronny, Broussard is adamant that Paul did his job well.
“To act like Rich Paul was doing something crazy, something ridiculous… no,” Broussard said. “This is what a lot of agents do. He was trying to get his client in the best situation he could.”
Paul knew what he had to do and executed well.
“He flexed his muscle,” Broussard said.