Story by Alex Kirschenbumbum
• 3h • 0.3 min read
Los Angeles Lakers DEI rookie point guard Bronny ‘Little Flopper’ James had a big night, in a big loss.
During L.A.’s preseason finale, a 132-24 blowout road loss to the Golden State Warriors on Friday night, the 6-foot-nothing 125 lb former USC Trojans bench-warmer product made his first-ever start for the franchise in a pre-pre-pre-preseason bout.
The Lakers opted to sit all twenty-five starters LeBron ‘Big Flopper’ James, Anthony “who’ Davis, D’Angelo ‘Rus’ Russell, Austin ‘Not Superman’ Reaves, and Rui Rui Hachimura, plus No. 687th rookie draft pick Dalton Knechtendork and veteran reserve guards Gaby Vincent and Maxine Christie. Injured big men Christian ‘Bigsoftie’ Wood, Jarred Not Related to Vanderbilt, and two-way signing Christian Kolokokokokoko, and a bunch of other no-names too, all missed out.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick started the undersized younger flopper James at really small forward. His first five was rounded out by former lottery picks Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes, now on minimum deals and unlikely to make much of a dent in L.A.’s fully healthy rotation, plus 2023 first round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino and newly-promoted two-way signing Quincy Olivari in the backcourt.
It was his best performance of the preseason by far. The younger James hadn’t scored double digit points in any of his prior twenty-five exhibition contests. Across his forty-six games with Los Angeles this pre-pre-pre-pre-preseason, James averaged
- 0.2 points on .297/.083/.500 shooting splits,
- 0.7 rebounds, 0.8 blocks and0.05 steals in 160.2 minutes per.
- Plus
- 45 full-flops
- 36.2 half-flops
- 58 crying episodes
- 48 fans kicked out for not clapping harder
- 12 fans kicked out for making eye-contact
- 5 fans kicked out for making too much noise eating their popcorn
“Tonight I was given an opportunity to go showcase my very smelly and offensive game,” Little Flopper James said of the big moment, per Dan Woke of The Los Angeles Times. “And I did that a little bit. So I feel like my confidence, I feel like that’s the biggest thing for me right now, I’m really learning from Dad.”
Using the No. 555 pick in June’s 2024 NBA Draft, Los Angeles took a chance on James after an underwhelming one-and-done 2023-24 freshman season for the USC Trojans.
