The NBA Floated the Idea of Getting America All Geared Up for All Star Game Weekend by Adding ... Bronny James

Katelyn Mulcahy. Getty Images.

Everyone's got an explanation as to why NBA TV ratings are down. From too much reliance on 27-foot jump shots to over-officiating to way too many cartoon characters:

Adam Silver seems to think it might be those pesky, unnecessary 8 minutes a game that pro basketball has always had, somehow killing the vibe now:

But whether it's the quality of the product or the Commissioner is right that we're all too ADHD to sit through a regulation basketball game, what's not in dispute is that viewership is in a freefall Tom Petty (RIP) could've sung about:

Sports Media Watch - Thursday’s Celtics-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 1.2 million viewers across TNT and truTV, down 13% from Warriors-Kings last year (1.39M) … Heat-Bucks, which began an hour later than scheduled, averaged 1.05 million — down 24% from Celtics-Heat a year ago (1.39M). …

Rounding out the recent slate, ESPN averaged 1.17 million for Timberwolves-Mavericks and 1.09 million for Warriors-Kings Wednesday, down 30% and up 80% respectively from last year’s overlapping games on ABC.

So like when Delta House was at it's lowest point, Silver's league decided this calls for a stupid and futile gesture be done on someone's part. And they were just the guys to do it:

Source (paywall) - “The league has thought all of it through as it brings its All-Star Game off life support, even the remote possibility that Bronny James — as part of the G League team during the Rising Stars Challenge — could end up facing his father in a Sunday night semifinal."

President of League Operations Byron Spruell added that not only could this happen, some think it would actually help matters.  “It’s a scenario that we could have. Remember last year, G League won in the first round of Rising Stars.”

That of course would be this Bronny James:

The Bronny that has Stephen A. Smith coming from a place of love and respect as he implores, pleads with, begs his father to put an end to his humiliation:

The Bronny who's 0-fer from behind the 3-point arc and who would increase his FG% if he goes 1-for-his next 15. That Bronny James is the guy who'd put eyeballs on screens across the nation. Because we're all so fixated on the G League, presumably. And because it's so rare that Americans get to watch … a guy shooting hoops with his dad? I guess? 

Hey, I'd try and watch.  That is, I might tune in if I'm sober enough on a Sunday night to remember the All Star Game is happening and there's literally nothing better on. Which are never the case. But still. I'd undoubtedly find some entertainment value from the thousands of videos on X the next day. It's not often you get to bear witness to the freakshow that would be an unlikable, narcissistic egomaniac shame and embarrass his child on national TV, just for his own gratification. That would be worth three minutes out of everybody's life.

To be clear, this is not about Bronny. Yes, he's a Nepo Baby. Plain and simple. It would be the height of ridiculousness to pretend he's where he is on merit. But that happens. It's life. When your parent is a star, you get a leg up. When your dad can hire and fire coaches and assemble his roster of teammates, you (just to tweak the old baseball metaphor about being born on 3rd base) get to start life at the free throw line and act like you drove the length of the court. It's not anyone's fault. If I didn't like it, I should've been born to a future Hall of Famer instead of a guy who worked for the phone company. No one promised it would be fair.

So it's OK to be a Nepo. Just be a good one. Ken Griffey, Jr. Barry Bonds. A Manning brother or a Manning grandson. Actor Bing Russell got shot hundreds of times in Westerns, bought a minor league baseball team, and fathered a boy who grew up to be Kurt Russell. Hell, half the owners of sports franchises inherited their teams from their fathers. There's no shame in it.

But there is shame in being promoted to a job you're objectively terrible at. Which is ironically why the idea of trotting out the two Jameses - should it happen - actually would make All Star Weekend more worth watching. Just not for the reason Adam Silver might think.