By now, we all know the story of Bronny James. It is impossible to miss it.
James, son of NBA legend LeBron James, played an unproductive season at USC and then entered the NBA Draft. That poor season occurred after James suffered cardiac arrest during a summer practice, but even if that excuses his lack of production, the reviews on him as an NBA prospect haven’t been great at the scouting combine.
Many don’t consider James a surefire NBA prospect, and if he weren’t the son of one of the NBA’s all-time greats, we probably wouldn’t hear much about a 6-1 guard out of USC who averaged 4.8 points as a freshman.
And yet, somehow, tied on most bets. at BetMGM For the number one overall pick in the NBA Draft it is James. That’s just strange.
Bronny James and the No. 1 overall pick bets
As of Monday, 22.5% of all bets at BetMGM on the number one overall pick in the NBA Draft are on James. That’s tied with Alexandre Sarr, the 7-foot-1 French center who is expected to take first overall.
There’s no one expecting James to come out first overall, other than BetMGM bettors. Sarr is -300 to finish first overall. James has 200 to 1 odds.
The explanation lies in the probabilities. Only 2.4% of all money bet on the first overall pick is on James, which means there are a lot of very small bets on James as bettors expect something strange from the Atlanta Hawks with the first overall pick.
There have been rumors for a while that any team that drafts James would also get his famous father on a minimum contract. That scenario could be why some misguided bettors are picking Bronny James first overall. But James has no plans to change teams to join his son, according to a report. Apparently the bettors didn’t see that story.
However, bettors are still interested in the LeBron-Bronny possibility. The majority of bets on BetMGM on which team will select James are on the Los Angeles Lakers (22.1%), LeBron James’ current team, and in second place are the Cleveland Cavaliers (18.3%), the former team leave me alone.
There’s a much, much better chance of James not being drafted at all than there is of him going first overall. But this is considered a historically bad NBA Draft class and without many interesting prospects to talk about, we’re about to hear a lot about James.
There will also be more bets on James finishing first overall, as unlikely as that will happen.