Doug Gottlieb doubles down on criticism of Bronny James, LeBron James

Many have been critical of how Bronny James has been handled ever since he left the University of Southern California last year to enter the NBA draft. Plenty have accused his father, LeBron James, of allegedly pushing him into the NBA in order to fulfill the elder James' publicly stated bucket list item of sharing an NBA court with him in the same game.

One man who levied that type of criticism was Doug Gottlieb, the commentator who became the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2024. Gottlieb said that the "toxicity" surrounding the younger James "is based upon one guy," referring to the Los Angeles Lakers superstar.

While on "The Dan Patrick Show" recently, Gottlieb seemed to double down on his criticism (h/t Athlon Sports).

"This has been such a dog and pony show," Gottlieb said on The Dan Patrick Show. "LeBron's gone around the country chastising Stephen A. Smith and tweeting me for no reason because all I've ever done is been honest. Like, sorry, I saw your son play in the Mission League. He was not one of the 10 best high school players in that league.

"It was the best high school league in the country, but he wasn't," Gottlieb continued. "I didn't say he stinks. I didn't say he can't play. I never said he can't play at Green Bay. Just the evaluation was completely false.

"No one was fighting over him to be a second-round pick," Gottlieb added. "JJ Redick saying he earned all of this, what are we even talking about? So again, if he develops into an NBA player, great. If this path makes him into something that we didn't see coming, awesome. But don't (expletive) us and then chastise us for giving honest basketball opinion. I don't think I made it personal, and then he quote-tweeted me."

The elder James responded to Gottlieb's initial comments in February by firing back on X (formerly Twitter) and pointing out the very poor record Gottlieb's team put up this past season.

While the younger James did almost nothing of note in the time he got with the big Lakers club, he did average a very promising 21.9 points, 5.5 assists and 5.1 rebounds a game while shooting 38% from 3-point range during the G League regular season. Perhaps if he continues to be assigned to the G League next season, he could have a future in the NBA after all.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Doug Gottlieb doubles down on criticism of Bronny James, LeBron James