Bronny James Drops Bombshell Excuse For Arguably The Worst Stat Line Ever

Bronny James needed only one preseason game to get the memes started again.

The Los Angeles Lakers sophomore guard James had a dreadful night in the team’s preseason opener against the Phoenix Suns on Friday. He finished the game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. with a brutal 1/12 shooting line (including 1/8 from three).

James did manage to shoot 5/6 from the free throw line to finish with eight points, five rebounds, and two assists overall. But he was also a -12 in his 24 minutes of action as the Lakers got creamed by a final score of 103-81.

After the game, the 20-year-old James explained his shooting struggles. He said that they were essentially a function of him not yet having his legs underneath him and thus leaving his attempts short.

Bronny James on his 1-for-12 shooting night: “I didn’t rush, wasn’t forcing anything. I didn’t have my legs under me as much as I wanted to so I left a lot of them short.” pic.twitter.com/yfU03lkZYq

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 4, 2025

That isn’t too bad of an explanation from James considering that it was the preseason opener and that training camp just began for the Lakers a few days ago. But there still isn’t much of a way to sugarcoat shooting 8.3 percent from the floor and 12.5 percent from deep in a single game.

James also struggled with his shot during his rookie season in Los Angeles, producing 31/28/79 shooting splits for the Lakers (though those rose to 44/38/82 shooting splits in G-League action). The Lakers have a bigger vision in mind for the former second-round pick James this season, so they will be hoping that Friday’s outing was simply due to early preseason rust rather than a potentially broken jumper.