Circa June 2024. In the weeks leading up to the NBA Draft, much of the conversation revolved around Bronny James. With LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers holding the 17th and 55th picks, and Bronny working out for both the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns, the biggest question was where he would land, and whether he would become part of the NBA’s first father-son duo on the same team. Amid all that buzz, Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 pick, barely got a fraction of the attention. Rarely has a top draft prospect flown so far under the radar. Now, Gilbert Arenas is calling attention to that very disparity.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The former All-Star and Bronny’s biggest defender called out what he perceives as a glaring double standard in how young players are scrutinized, contrasting the intense coverage surrounding Bronny with the relative silence regarding former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher. On a recent episode of Gil’s Arena, Arenas Josiah Johnson, DeMarcus Cousins, and Iman Shumpert reacted to the Dallas Mavericks acquiring Risacher this offseason.
Arenas argued that the media spent more time hyper-focusing on the 55th pick of the 2024 draft than on holding the top overall selection accountable for his early-career struggles.
“They was too busy bashing Bronny for nepotism, that they forgot there was a number one pick that they never even mention,” Arenas said on the show.
When Johnson identified the player as the Atlanta Hawks first overall pick of 2024, Zaccharie Risacher, Arenas doubled down on his critique of the media’s priorities.
“Yeah, you remember he got drafted number one,” Arenas continued. “He’s been a– ever since. That’s what, there’s no point of even mentioning him now. You didn’t want to mention him when he got drafted when the pressure was on the number one pick. Y’all went straight to the 55th. Mr. 55th. Y’all went all the way down there for a n—- who don’t make the team, wasn’t going to play much. You killed him and there was a whole number one pick just chilling and relaxing.”
While Johnson suggested that Risacher is simply a young player “aspiring to get better,” Arenas and Shumpert pointed out that his recent trade to Dallas allows him to fly under the radar alongside another former top pick and reigning ROTY, Cooper Flagg.
“So he gets to hide again,” Arenas added. “So that was the quickest trade of a number one pick ever in the history of number one picks.”
Arenas, a potential NBA dad himself, as his son, Alijah Arenas, is a very hyped prospect, has always pushed back on the nepotism narratives surrounding Bronny. This time, he points out the hypocrisy of a broader conversation regarding draft position, player background, and media framing.
Spanish-born French forward Zaccharie Risacher, selected first overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2024 NBA Draft after playing in France, saw his scoring average decline from 12.6 points per game as a rookie to 9.6 points per game in his second NBA season before being traded to the Mavericks in a multi-team deal. Across two seasons in Atlanta, the 6’9 French forward averaged 11.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in roughly 24 minutes per game.
Risacher’s production through his first two NBA seasons has been modest by the standards of a No. 1 overall pick, fueling questions about the hype surrounding him. Arenas also points out that the 2024 top pick receives little attention in his home country of France, despite the nation producing back-to-back No. 1 selections after Victor Wembanyama arrived as a generational prospect in 2023.
DeMarcus Cousins added that while European prospects frequently receive praise as part of the broader narrative that global talent is taking over the league, struggling European top picks rarely face the aggressive critique aimed at domestic players.
The contrast is visible with Bronny, who entered the league under a microscope as the 55th overall pick and as LeBron James’ son. Despite playing limited minutes, primarily in garbage-time stints or developing with the South Bay Lakers (now Coachella Valley Lakers) in the G League, the younger James remained a staple of national sports talk shows, with every stat line dissected on social media.
Over his first two NBA seasons, Bronny James averaged 2.7 points and 1.1 assists across 69 games while receiving limited playing time. He showed clear shooting improvement in his second season, raising his three-point percentage from 28.1% to 38.6%.
Even now, he still faces scrutiny for his first season without his dad as a teammate and for the heavy expectations JJ Redick has of him.
Arenas was not trying to tear down Risacher. But as always, he had to expose how Bronny gets the short end of the narrative stick regardless of on-court production.