ESPN’s excessive coverage of Bronny James is ‘click’ based, says veteran journalist Michael Wilbon

ESPN has been oft criticized for its excessive coverage of Los Angeles Lakers star Bronny James' NBA and G League seasons.

ESPN’s excessive coverage of Bronny James is ‘click’ based, says veteran journalist Michael Wilbon

Michael Wilbon and Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James

Bronny James entered the NBA along with a lot of hype. It is not that fans are not aware that the Los Angeles Lakers rookie needs development. But despite that, networks cover him a lot more than many star NBA players.

The coverage has been such that MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets less screen time than him. There are other young budding future NBA stars who are also not getting enough screen time. That has bothered many, considering the league needs it next big face.

No G League player has been mentioned this many times on primetime debate shows. Nor have experts constantly harped about how much he has developed over the season. But this has bothered veteran journalist Michael Wilbon, who said this to Outkick.

I’d do anything for my kid, and I would hug LeBron for what he did for his kid. There were shows that talked about Bronny every day. You know what shows I’m talking about. I don’t care if my bosses get mad. They would try to get Tony and me to talk about it. No, we were not going to do it…

Michael Wilbon said

The 66-year-old is one of the hosts of ESPN’s PTI and has clarified that other than when James Jr. was drafted, they have not talked about him at all. He knows that decision has irked his bosses at ESPN, but he does not care as he believes as a father of a 17-year-old son, it piles more pressure.

Michael Wilbon believes 20-year-olds on social media dictate news coverage

Michael Wilbon has been a journalist for 45 years now. In all this time, he has usually seen people in the newsrooms dictate media coverage. With the advent of social media, that has changed, and the ESPN analyst believes news coverage is in the hands of others.

Let me be clear: our business is a piece of shit a lot of days. People are not in newsrooms anymore or a studio, where you can call them out on their bulls**t. That’s a problem. Instead, there are a bunch of 20-year-olds pitching stories while spending all day on social media and reinforcing each other’s bulls**t. It’s 100% pandering, and I hate it.

Michael Wilbon said

He believes 20-year-olds on social media push a storyline they resonate with. That forces the hands of networks who then want to follow the trend. If they divert the storyline to something else, they may not get enough clicks or viewers.

This is playing a major role in how the NBA gets covered. Since his pre-draft workouts, the coverage has been all about Bronny James. His career-high games in both the NBA as well as the G League have gone on to support that coverage, and it looks like it will not let up anytime soon.

Bronny James’ coverage received a major boost after career games

Until and after his draft, many, including Michael Wilbon’s colleague Stephen A. Smith and others talked about the development Bronny James needed. They all continuously talked about how the rookie needs to grind for a while before he is NBA ready.

But after his career-high game against a full-strength Milwaukee Bucks team, many of those naysayers have quietened down. Now the narrative has shifted to fans questioning if the experts got it all wrong. They believe no one gave James Jr. a chance to prove himself.

Now that he has, they do not have anything to criticize. This has caused further negativity for networks as they have lost face. Now they have to cover the Los Angeles Lakers more than ever, while accepting that they got it wrong.