Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ son Bronny is making a name for himself as an incoming high school freshman, and his AAU team, Strive For Greatness, has been reaching high levels of success.
A couple plays from the Big Time Hoops Tournament in Las Vegas went viral, but they didn’t necessarily grab everyone’s attention because of the plays itself.
In one, Bronny threw down a dunk, and the elder James took some steps out onto the court in celebration.
A different video, which was spread further and sparked reaction from tons of people — some negative, including Jason Whitlock — showed James running onto the floor to celebrate with the player who threw a between-the-legs alley-oop. James lost his shoe in the process and had to spring back to retrieve it.
We’re not here to argue if James’ reaction was over the top or if he’s just being a good father.
(Though you can vote and share your opinion right here if you so choose).
What we are here for is to bring you this Twitter thread of hilarious stories on how lawless AAU basketball can be compared to the traditional youth basketball environment.
It started with this tweet from the man known as Dragonfly Jonez:
Lot of ppl criticizing Bron have no idea how lax AAU games are. Teams often show up w/no idea who the hell theyre playing that day. Ive heard AAU games called by dudes who sounded like they were trying out their standup material.Seen games ran on side courts instead of regulation
— Beyonce has an uncle named Larry Beyince. Bruh…. (@DragonflyJonez) July 30, 2019
So some other people shared their stories.
James might have lost his shoe this weekend, but this Twitter account named TrentonsDad1 recalls going to a game a couple years back — we assume it was to watch a kid named Trenton play — when something crashed to the floor that was harder to clear off.
Bruh I rolled up to a tournament two years ago and three games has to be stopped cuz some kid spilled his marble collection and them shits were EVERYWHERE. People tripping and falling even the next day
— TrentonsDad1 (@Trentons_dad1) July 30, 2019
You don’t want older men on the court? At least James wasn’t signed up to play.
aye i remember playing in a middle school tournament in high school cus my aau coach was a cheater
we ran into two 7 footers on one team and our coach put our assistant coach in the game
dude was like 32 years old like 6’5
— God of black air forces . (@LordScreet) July 30, 2019
we ran into two 7 footers on one team and our coach put our assistant coach in the game
Bruh i remember playing in the U13’s against dudes with 5 o’clock shadows and tattoos… Bron would’ve been the least of my damn worries
— Hot Ass Beat Clap (@nyceeej) July 30, 2019
And at least he wasn’t signed up to play TWICE.
played in a tournament back in the day where this team beat the absolute hell out of us then their best player showed up on the next team we were playing and claimed he had a twin. official just went with it lol
— Brice (@dBriceJ) July 30, 2019
The “official just went with it lol.”
Speaking of referees, they know the game is important and that you can’t rush the end. That is, until it takes too long to finish.
Once played in a game that instead of going 2OT they said fuck it, next basket wins
— Cuervo (@kuervoSan) July 30, 2019
For context on this next one: this guy said he volunteered and referees wanted the game clock to be running as much as possible.
lmao right! Any time a coach complained, he would let them talk while giving us the “run the clock” motion
—
(@Gordehh) July 30, 2019
(@Gordehh) And moving over to the coaches:
We used to always show up to the games w like 1:37 left on the warm up clock… coach called his first timeout like 2 min in to “get loose and stretch” lmaooo
— Manny Fresh (@EChoobaka13) July 30, 2019
bro my aau coach made us run suicides during halftime
anything can happen haha
— isaac (@NOTISAACCAMPOS) July 30, 2019
anything can happen hahaAgain, we’re not here to say if LeBron was over the top or not. We can’t even confirm the authenticity of these claims. It is Twitter, after all.
But as ESPN senior writer Kevin Van Valkenburg tweeted, the “sanctity” of AAU basketball isn’t exactly a real thing.
This thread of AAU stories is great. As someone says below: Imagine hating LeBron so much you’re complain about … the sanctity of AAU games. You’ve told on yourself. https://t.co/zBWT3wEkT1
— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) July 30, 2019