“F**k Playng Time”: Gilbert Arenas Warns Bronny James Against “Horrible” G-League, Paints Draft Image

Nevermind LeBron James, it looks like Gilbert Arenas wants to keep Bronny under his nose. Gil’s Arena this week discussed Bronny James’ potential landing spot after Rich Paul’s recent comments. LeBron’s agent, who’s also managing the 19-year-old now said that the King’s desire to play alongside his son is not a factor. Which brings up the teams other than the Lakers rumored to be interested in Bronny. Among them, Arenas thinks he’d be a good fit in Minnesota as long as he has a straight path to the NBA and not the league’s side quest.

When it once more came up that Bronny lacks experience, Arenas emphasized it’s important to snag the talent up sooner. “

I’m keeping talents on my team that’s not actually part of the future…” He means the NBA G-League Ignite, the league’s development team. Some youngsters who went undrafted have played in the league. There’s no discussion about Bronny going there but Arenas says it’s a bad idea. “I would have never sent him to the G-League to do what? To get trained by who? To get some playing time? F**k playing time!“

There was always a development league but the G-League has officially existed since 2020. Hassan Whiteside, Jalen Green, Matt Barnes, and Pascal Siakam are some of the success stories since they were called up to the NBA from the development league. Shaquille O’Neal’s son and Bronny’s friend, Shareef O’Neal went undrafted in 2022 and played in the G-League until 2023. He, however, hasn’t been on the court for a year for undisclosed reasons.

Moreover, the G-League is ending after the 2023-24 season as the development stage is fulfilled in the NCAA. This redundancy is also why Arenas thinks Bronny will thrive under an NBA team.

“I want to keep him under this [the NBA] … like my talent is staying in house. He needs to learn my way. Him going down there playing, playing and learning these horrible habits and then come here, then I got to break those habits, then teach him… I rather send him here,” Arenas says. He claims Bronny can develop an NBA-worthy work ethic and practices playing in the NBA itself. It’s one of the reasons why he thought a certain team was a good fit for him.

Gilbert Arenas makes the Wolves’ case

More teams rumored in drafting Bronny are the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks, and Toronto Raptors. Why Arenas felt Bronny would fit the Wolves was obvious some episodes ago. Bronny was medically cleared for the draft but there was still a lack of faith in a 19-year-old’s talent that’s not seen enough college experience.

Arenas reminded his panel that Anthony Edwards entered the league at 19, a 1st overall pick in 2020, the year the G-League was born. After some NBA conditioning, Ant leads the Wolves to the playoffs for the first time since 2004, farther than the Lakers, and at 22 is earning comparisons to Michael Jordan. Arenas said Ant is proof that it pays off to develop talent within the NBA.

G-League is not an option for Bronny anymore. It remains to be seen if he’ll prove Gil right.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.