USCs Bronny James plays his first road game, but Auburn makes it anticlimactic

June 07, 2024

AUBURN, Ala. — Sure, Bronny James made his USC debut a week earlier in a home loss to Long Beach State, but the hyper-scrutinized son of NBA superstar LeBron James got his true introduction to college basketball on Sunday afternoon at Auburn’s sold-out Neville Arena. There, he was greeted by a student who looked straight out of casting for a Dr. Pepper Fansville commercial: mustache, bright orange wig, orange-and-blue striped overalls, topless except for a coconut bra. During Auburn home games, when opponents shoot free throws, Connor Salter runs behind the basket and unhooks the straps of his overalls to reveal those tropical accessories as a means of distraction.

On Sunday, he stood behind Bronny James during warmups shaking a Sharpie at him. Across his bare chest he’d already written with that marker: LeBron sign here.

“Just in case. I’m a fiend for signatures,” Salter said, mere moments after swearing that the hyped-up crowd had nothing to do with their famous visitor. “Bronny Mania? Nah, Auburn’s gonna show out like this every single day, whoever shows up. The notion that we’re here because LeBron James’ son is here, it’s irrelevant. We’re here for Auburn.”

And there’s some truth in that. The Tigers have cultivated a remarkable homecourt environment in their glittering arena, which opened in 2010, and under magnetic coach Bruce Pearl, who led Auburn to its first Final Four in 2019. But there was also some serious curiosity about the son of arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, himself a McDonald’s All-American, whose freshman season had been delayed by a sudden cardiac arrest during a workout less than five months ago.

Bronny James, who was cleared for basketball activities just three weeks ago and is on a minutes restriction in games right now, had four points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 16 minutes in his debut last week. What would he do for an encore? And was his famous father going to be in the building?

The Bronny effect is real.

The line outside of Neville Arena 2.5 hours before tip for USC at Auburn 😳

(via @Matt_Cohen_)
pic.twitter.com/YW1lOlQeUF

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 17, 2023

LeBron was not, but Auburn legend Charles Barkley was, and a frothing student section arrived hours before tipoff and buzzed in the background as Bronny and the Trojans warmed up.

“You think Bronny is the real deal?” one student asked his friend.

“We’re gonna see,” said the other.

In the end, it was all a bit anticlimactic. The Tigers led for 37 of 40 minutes, by as many as 23 points, and won comfortably, 91-75, to drop USC to .500 for the season. James played just 14 minutes, scored five points on 1-of-4 shooting, grabbed two rebounds, helped force one Tigers turnover and coughed up one himself. His only chance to delight the crowd, at the end of a blowout loss, went awry when he couldn’t connect on a lob-dunk attempt. He was booed the first time he checked into the game, and Pearl smartly sent a message the first time he touched the ball, assigning veteran guard KD Johnson to smother James. It almost resulted in an immediate turnover.

The moment felt a bit big for James at this point in a stunted start to his college career.

“It’s only his first week, really, of basketball season,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “So we expect him to continue to get better on both sides of the ball, understand our system, our plays, but we’re very proud of him. He’s a hard worker, very high basketball IQ, and he’s a good teammate. He’s improved, but it’s a little unfair to him to be judging him every possession right now. He’s a freshman, and he’s been out for five months. It’s very, very challenging, but we anticipate he’ll be a much better player by the middle of the season than he is now.”

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So far, though, James seems to be handling all the extra attention well. He did not speak to the media Sunday — interview requests don’t run through the school’s sports information department, but rather through James’ personal PR team, and they’re inclined to shield him from it all for now — but teammates bragged on his attitude through the entire ordeal.

He took a break from his pregame warmup routine, an intense session during which he’d worked himself into a full, sweat-soaked lather on Sunday, to playfully weave around the court dribbling the basketball with his feet. One man already settled into a courtside seat hollered, “Oh, Bronny’s got soccer skills!” and earned a grin from the five-star freshman. After a prolonged foot volley, James scooped it up and fired an errant 3-pointer, prompting a, “Hey, Messi, stick to soccer!” from the student section — an always rowdy group that calls itself The Jungle.

“I’m sure it’s a long, stressful process for him, but he’s a strong kid, positive kid,” said teammate Isaiah Collier, the No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2023 class. “He’s one of the most positive people we have on the whole team, so he’s going to be good. We’re not worried. Everybody else, from the outside looking in, might be. But we’re not.”

Beyond Bronny, the biggest takeaway from the game Sunday is that Auburn (8-2), a 10-deep team with top-15 offensive and defensive efficiency numbers and blowout wins over Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Indiana and now USC, might be quite good. While the Trojans (5-5), despite Collier, James and a total of seven former top-100 recruits on the roster, just aren’t right now.

There’s a lot that needs to get fixed, namely a struggling defense, Enfield said. Maybe when James is fully integrated and the minutes restriction lifts, he can provide a boost that lifts everyone around him. His father is famous for elevating teammates, after all. For now, though, the goal of everyone in his orbit is to support Bronny’s pursuit of some semblance of normalcy, on and off the court. No one is better positioned to do that than teammate Vincent Iwuchukwu, another former five-star recruit who, incredibly, suffered cardiac arrest during a workout almost exactly a year before James.

“Naturally, it’s just human nature when something happens like that to be more cautious,” Iwuchukwu said. “It’s a hurdle for sure, but I had a lot of people around me to help and guide me, and he does too. I’m still figuring it out myself — if I had it all figured out, a lot of things this season would be different — because it does take adjusting to, but Bronny’s done a really good job of that. All I’ve told him is to have fun, because it’s a blessing to be back out there, so just smile and laugh and enjoy it.”

(Photo of Bronny James inbounding the ball while being heckled by Auburn fan Connor Salter: Butch Dill / AP)

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