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Writer's pictureUnloveable Dad - Curt

Given Not Earned - How Lebron James' Ego Derailed His Son Bronny James' Journey



Update - LeBron/Bronny + Previous Videos Transcript


Curt Dalton (00:00)

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Preeti (00:00)

Hey Curt so the last time we talked about LeBron and Bronny James, we got a lot of love and hate on our social media. We're getting ready for Laker training camp again. So what's the update? What's going on with Bronny and LeBron?


Curt Dalton (00:14)

So good news, bad news on that, Preeti. Remember we did our videos a few months ago and the question I asked or proposed was that LeBron, the father, take the emotion out of whether you like him as a basketball player in his dynasty or not, was he doing the right thing for his son, Bronny, by highly lubricating the slide to the NBA and getting him on the Lakers with a big contract and now he's going to be a teammate.


Two things as we come into training camp. One, the rumor is he'll be on the G league team for the Lakers to get playing time, which is for those that don't know, kind of like the minor league team, even though he signed a major pro contract, they can put him in the minor league basically to work on his game, which I think would be great. Just take the spotlight off of him. Let him actually become a better player and see if he can play in the NBA based on his skillset, not who his father is. But the other thing that kind of triggered me a little was if you don't agree,


that LeBron has done the right thing. You're a hater. And that's coming from LeBron with what he puts out in his pictures with his kid and his speeches. And I found that as a father, if you're just giving a critique or an opinion on, how much should I help my son along in life, you know, the nepotism part or the skill part to get a job, if you say, like I did, well, I don't think I'd go that far crossing the line as putting them on the court type thing. It's one thing to make a phone call or get them a workout or pull a string, but I would not have gone that far.


You're a hater. So that's an interesting kind of narcissistic gaslight where if you don't agree with LeBron's decision and Savannah, his mother's decision on this route, then you hate them. And I found that interesting because generally when people call you a hater and you're using parent logic and father opinion, then they there's something where they know maybe what they did isn't right, right? Cause they can't debate you on the fact or why they'll just call you a hater and move on, which by the way,


The entire world is doing right now with politics. So if you don't agree with someone or you say, don't think I would have done that. you're a hater. You're just a hater. Like, no, I'm giving an opinion on would I have done that for my child to the extent you would have. I don't think it put Bronny in the best position for success moving forward. But if you say something like that, you're just a hater now. You hate them, which is totally not true.


Preeti (02:18)

Do you hate them Curt?


Curt Dalton (02:19)

No, no, I'm a Celtics fan and I have a lot of respect for LeBron and what he's done for the game. But to say, again, I'm not even commenting on the basketball side of it or his game or anything. It's just as a father, would I have done that and everyone people have said to me, you totally do that if you could. was like, actually, I totally wouldn't. I would never. mean, like I said, to make a phone call, to get him an extra workout, to get him a look from a team, that seems pretty reasonable, but to force his hand and get him on your team so you can have that moment of your glory where you play with your son.


first father son in a live NBA game ever, that did not put Bronny's self -interest first, for sure. And if you say that, you must hate him, then you're a hater. we'll see, we got about two weeks till training camp. This story is gonna come up everywhere where Bronny is gonna be working out with the team and in some exhibition games and how does he look? And of course the internet will go wild if there's a bad play or a good play, but you put him in this position. So I don't know, I don't think as a father, he did the right thing for his child right now.


Preeti (03:12)

All right, well, we're going to keep following this story. Where can they learn more information about our Bronny opinions?


Curt Dalton (03:19)

Yeah, for our fatherly opinions go to Maya4life.com. That's Maya4life.com can always leave a comment on one of our YouTube videos or social media post and we do have about if you go back about six or eight weeks. You'll see a string of LeBron videos when this first this news first broke and Bronny was drafted


Preeti (03:41)

Hey Curt, so everyone and their mother, I know my mother is talking about what's going on on the Lakers with LeBron James and his son, Bronny. I wanna talk to you about it from a parenting perspective. There seems to be a lot of overlap in terms of what we do at Maya and also in terms of what we warn parents against. Although I'd say there's very few people in the world who have the level of fame, success.


that someone like LeBron James has. And he and his family enjoy access and incredible, an incredible, God, what's the word? I'm looking for a word. can, ee, legacy. He and his family enjoy his incredible legacy and his children


following in his footsteps one way or another, but it seems like Bronny's getting a lot of criticism as well as is LeBron. Is all of this warranted from a parenting perspective? Is LeBron falling into some pitfalls that some other parents have fallen into?


Curt (04:50)

absolutely. don't think Bronny necessarily should be getting this criticism. I don't think people are criticizing Bronny for this I think LeBron the father certainly can be questioned on forcing a situation that his son right now physically or maybe mentally might not be qualified for if his last name wasn't James. You know, I don't question that LeBron loves his son very much, but I don't question that Bronny loves his


I do question whether LeBron's goals of being the first father son to play in a game, an NBA live game, real season game, is overshadowing his fatherly best instincts, meaning part of being a good father is letting your child fail and helping them through that, learning how to pick themselves up, letting them find their own way with whatever they're meant to do.


Sometimes we want to protect our kids. And in this day and age of everyone gets a medal and we don't keep score and no one's a loser. We're seeing a generation come through that. Let's say you're competing for a job or you're, you're down to your last three people interviewing. You don't get it. There's a generation that doesn't understand that. thought everybody wins in this case, LeBron's son is Bronny is not, is clearly not ready to be an NBA player, but LeBron in his,


Whether it's hubris or arrogance or fatherly instinct, he would like to have his son on the Lakers and has either forced it or manipulated it. I don't want to get into, you know, how much he controls the Lakers, but Certainly his son being with him on the Lakers on a two year, $8 million contract and even being drafted certainly looks like heavy influence from LeBron and Rich Paul, his agent. LeBron loves his son and he wants the best for him. I assume.


And he thinks the best is to put him in an unnatural situation that he's not ready for. As a father, I think a lot of fathers around the country are cringing because you're setting your son up to fail. He's going to fail at this because he's not an NBA player yet. And to be forced into that role, to actually bring your son through this nepotism way onto the ice, the court, the field in a pro league where you have to earn your spot.


I don't think he's putting his son's interests before his own. Let Bronny find his way in life. Let Bronny compete to the best of his ability. And if he makes the NBA fantastic, if he doesn't, He'll have to find his way in life. That's meant for him, not his father. So I think the nation itself is, jumping on the bandwagon, as you might say, as far as criticism.


Obviously LeBron's a lightning rod of a personality and a sports figure where you either love him or hate him. And like I said, I'm not, don't have an ax to grind with LeBron and Bronny seems like a very nice kid, but based on his interviews, you know, even on the pre drafts interviews, he, his goal, his dream was never to play with his father. He wanted to, you know, create his own legacy and earn it. And yes, fathers help sons along the way. There is nepotism in sports. There is nepotism at


let's say in industry since the beginning of time. But this crosses a line that I think is hurting his son. In a sense, making his son a joke, the butt of jokes, memes. putting his son in a position. He's just an 18 year old kid. seems like a very nice kid where he's just gonna hear in every arena he goes to the chirping and the insults. And the problem is the insults or the chirping has validity. He isn't qualified already


take on this role. He may never be time will tell, but it's being forced into it. And I feel bad for him because his way in life and his journey that LeBron could help him with may not be what LeBron's moment of playing with his son in the NBA is all about. and it's a very hot topic. Everyone knows that his son needs more training, more time to see if he can become a great player at NBA level player will say. And as a father, it hurts to watch.


a nice 18 year old kid who of course you'll stand by your father. He'll do whatever he says. He'll, you know, He'll carry the torch, but is this what really what Bronny wants? Um, As I prepared for this piece and asked other fathers, what their opinion was, a couple of things came up. One was, well, you would do it for your kid to get in the NBA. And of course there's an $8 million contract guarantee. And I said, absolutely not setting your son up for failure for my


Selfish reasons for a glorious moment of being the first father son to throw a pass to each other or an alley -oop 100% and the eight million dollars is laughable the broad James is worth 1 .5 billion Bronny James made millions in NIL money before he turned pro he could he has social media following in the millions he could do like a Manning show like the Manning brothers do for football and just talk about basketball while it's going on and have two million subscribers and a half a million in sponsorship


This was not about making sure your son could make $8 million. He would make that in college at USC through the NIL money program. So I didn't, I would, I didn't think that was, know, you'd do the same. you'd want your kid in the NBA because as much as I want it at the way LeBron wants his son in the NBA, he, is it what he wants and how he wants to get there? Does he want a backdoor wink, wink, I got you here. I didn't earn it. Or did he want to try to earn it on his own?


And in the end, as powerful as LeBron James is, and you're right, his family is like the Kardashians of sports, right? The kids very much in the spotlight, lots of money coming in through different social media parts. Is this something that is going to make Bronny, you know, happier or worse off inside? Not money wise. Money is not in their basketball court in Beverly Hills probably cost six million to put in. It's not about money. It's about the human being. And actually, as you said, I


I'd love to get Bronny James in the Maya Teen Program because the first half of the program goes over this of internal validation and what your true representation of yourself and what you want to be in life. And I'd be very curious to hear his own story without what his dad say would like him to do.


Preeti (11:24)

I want to go back to something you said earlier about LeBron being ambitious. This seems like LeBron is one of the most ambitious people on the planet. So it would follow that he would have these kinds of ambitions, these incredibly lofty goals and set very, very high standards for his children. How would you as a father set really high goals and high standards for your children differently in this scenario?


Curt (11:50)

I think you said it right in your question, his goals for his children. You're absolutely right. Those are his goals to play with Bronny in an NBA game and catch an alley oop and play with his son. And they'll have a time out and hug it out and take pictures. What's Bronny's goal? Did he ever sit down and ask Bronny, even if Bronny does love basketball and that's been his dream, what are your basketball goals? How do you want to do it? You know, how do you want to go through? Is it high school or let's start at AAU?


high school, college, he went to USC for a year he was going to either transfer or go pro. Setting goals with your children not for your children is a big difference and I think that would be answering your question what LeBron could have done. I have a hard time believing Bronny said, yes, make the Lakers draft me, make this happen, make them give me a guaranteed $8 million contract, make sure I'm on the team.


someone would ask for this that's so out of their, say, natural course of how their life is going. So did he talk to him about it? Did they ever sit down and discuss how do you would you like to get me the NBA and you know, that kind of thing


Preeti (12:54)

Right. In terms of nepotism, nepotism, as you said, has existed since the beginning of time. A lot of people are pushing back on saying that this is unfair nepotism, because it's probably one of the preeminent examples of an African -American family being the beneficiary of nepotism. And given the history of our country, is this also


balancing that's happening as far as unfair nepotism is concerned. And as a parent, do we pull out all the stops? Do we use every resource that we have at our fingertips? Most parents I know absolutely do. I know mine did. They were definitely not LeBron James level resources, but anything that my parents could do for me to get me


a summer job or an internship or a leg up in any way, an opportunity, they absolutely went to the mattresses for me. So where's the line? When do we cross the line into unhealthy parenting and what does healthy parenting look like in terms of opening doors for your kids?


Curt (13:54)

I think the standard is every parent wants to help their child. Like you just said, in any way, could they make a phone call? Could they get me them an interview? alumni networks for colleges work the same way. And that's a little, little more of what you pay for in your college tuition is what network you can rely on or, kind of have contact with. and yes, nepotism is very common in sports. certainly, you know, the Patriots and Bill Belichick with his kids as defensive coordinators in certain positions.


I think Austin Ange, Danny Ange's son is still involved or head of scouting for the Celtics. The line you cross, at least in sports is on the field of play where it's competitive and you earn your spot, whether it's hockey, soccer, football, basketball, thousands of people are competing on skill for that one last spot. And to get me there, what LeBron is doing is taking that spot and putting


on the field, it would be akin to Tom Brady, let's say he was still playing and his son, think Jack's is oldest saying, all right, draft Jack, if you let's say Tom's on the Patriots or the Buccaneers, like I want to be the first quarterback to throw it to my son. Even though Jack might be a division three type athlete, kind of tight end somewhere. When you cross onto the field and you, you damage the integrity of the game and the authentic part of the game now with a player who is only there due


to an owner or in this case, LeBron making it happen. It's not earned properly like everyone else. That's what's the line that's crossed and I think is rubbing people the wrong


Preeti (15:16)

But we see a lot of families in front office work install their children in positions who are probably some probably not qualified at all. The fact that we don't see the repercussions of any of that, the fact that we don't see the workers, the other employees who have to pick up the slack for so -and -so's nephew or daughter who doesn't know marketing or economics and is, you know, working in either of those departments.


Does that play a role in this as well or is there something intrinsic in the idea of athleticism and physical prowess that changes this conversation?


Curt (15:52)

As you said, you don't see it. There's other sports, cameras are on the field, millions and tens of million people are watching this. They're not watching the marketing department, right? They're not watching the tickets, sales and community relations department on TV and seeing it. And I think that is where the line of competition, you're right, there would be competition for that same marketing job or someone who's not qualified to be in the accounting department.


And there may be 10 other qualified applicants. Whereas on the sports field, there might be a thousand people for that one spot to get me to the level of the NFL or the NBA or the NHL or pro baseball. And I think there's millions of people too, as parents that had child athletes and their dreams and their kid's dream was to get me to that level. It didn't happen for them. And that's part of, you know, teaching your child when they fall or their careers over, how they handle


And there's a feeling that LeBron cheated the parenting game too by moving his kid to the front of the line and putting him on the court if it does happen this year. That rubs people and just feels wrong to a lot of families who didn't have a son or daughter of that level. You know, I had to have those discussions and what do we do? You your sports career is probably coming to an end at high school or college.


Preeti (17:01)

Right. I also suspect that most of those front office jobs are not held by African Americans. And so we have more of the racial and economic disparity that plagues our country. And the criticism feels a little bit unbalanced just because we don't see what's happening. The fact is that families control a lot of interests and money and power and conversations and political parties. And there's legacy in all of


And in some cases, the Kennedys come to mind is actually something that's applauded and lauded. It's a family of public servants. But there was clearly a lot of corruption in that administration and it's definitely not necessarily something that has benefited the country. I'm probably going to delete all of that anyway. Interesting. Keep going.


I edit these heavily so we can just keep going.


Curt (17:50)

Okay. I guess to your point, I would say if LeBron helped Bronny become Rich Paul's lead agent or helped Bronny start an agency, right? Being a sports agent, you wouldn't have this furor and this debate and this, you know, sour taste in a lot of people's mouths because that I think is more accepted black or white African -American, Chinese, Mexican to help your son or daughter get me


started in life, like you said, or give them open any door they can. But there was a line crossed when it goes to putting him on the field again, or the court or the ice, whatever it is, Wayne Gretsky getting his kid to play with them forcing franchise to do something like that. That crosses the line. It doesn't matter the race. If Larry Bird did this, or like I said, Tom Brady, the all American Caucasian quarterback if he had


If his son Jack was a division three tight end and then he forced the Patriots to draft them so he could throw them a pass, it would have the same. This is wrong. And even LeBron's moment that he wants is now tainted. It's if this happens this year with Bronny coming in a game that he's hasn't earned or really qualified for on competition. And he throws his dad a pass. And like I said, they have a slam dunk and they take a picture. It's, it's going to be a meme, it's going to be with an eye roll for the rest of history. It's going to be with a.


Yeah, but his kid, it shouldn't even been in the league. He like, he, he acted like an owner basically. And that's terrible to take that moment. ruined that sports moment. And it's going to ruin that moment forever from the broad now and Bronny because it's fraudulent. It's not authentic. It's forced and it was created not through authentic means. and I think that's bad for the sport as well. And I think people, nobody wants to see a record or some first ever done in a sport, but we all know it's fake.


Preeti (19:28)

Right. Well, one of the things that we believe in at MAYA is that parents are not perfect and nor are they meant to be perfect. And we were here to provide resources and really help parents and be a partner to a parent who might be struggling with some of these issues. We have an e-book about some of the ways that parents can encourage true confidence and self-validation and help their kids build self-esteem and self-worth.


You can get me it at www.maya4life.com and on our social media. And they include things like letting your kids make mistakes, taking an interest in the things that they're interested in, and setting realistic expectations. Not everyone's going to be LeBron James, not even LeBron James' son. But Bronny has so much to offer this world and tons of opportunities. And we really hope


he's able to find his path and enjoy the journey. As we like to say at MAYA, it's 95% process, 95% journey and only 5% result. And the other thing I think we can say about this is that This is just a moment in a young man's life and whatever he does in the future, whatever legacy he ends up establishing for himself, it's gonna be really exciting to watch.


Curt (20:46)

Right. And a lot of these issues are actually in that free ebook you talked about letting your kid fall, stumble, fail, and teaching them how to pull yourself up and how to handle those things in life, which we've gotten away from as a society is super important and putting confidence in them and self -esteem, which is another part of that ebook for parents. Like we're hitting all the topics that we talk about not only with teens, but with their parents in our program.


I would love to have Bronny do our program and I'd love to have LeBron on if we can get me this show somehow to him over time to get me his opinion on the father side of it and what he's thinking. And my most curious point is to see what mom Savannah thinks. And if, as a mother, what her, what her opinion is of her son that's 18 going through this process and if, it was approved and they're both absolutely was it a good decision?


Preeti (21:31)

Well, also, this is a family that is not foreign to taking a hit on social media. So they have definitely had challenges that most families don't have. And yet there is a parallel. Our kids are facing unmitigated pressures to be liked on social media, to lead these public lives. And we don't know how to do that as adults in healthy ways, let alone teach our children how to do that.


One of the other things we're looking to do at Maya is make sure that parents have resources to help their kids through these pressures of social media. And you don't have to be Bronny James to know that sometimes it really sucks to be on the internet. And it should be a safe place and a welcoming place, but it's not always. And we teach teens and parents how to move through social media with both integrity and grace.


Curt (22:20)

Yeah, and the social media pressures, as we've covered in a few of our videos, which people can look back in the libraries, if you're on YouTube now, or even Instagram Reels, we cover how social media has changed. I mean, parents are well aware that we didn't have these, like you said, mistakes weren't broadcast around the world. Our mistakes were made in private, but now they're broadcast and the internet never forgets, as you have said in other videos. So how do you discuss that with children? All the way from sexting, you know, with Snapchat to know, social media press is mean girls, if we want to call it and categorize it the bullying of online. So super excited with the people we're working with now and the families and teens and looking forward to more discussion, whether it be a Bronny James or anyone else that's kind of going through this process.


Preeti (23:02)

And again, you can find us at www.maya4life.com and @maya4lifeofficial on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.


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