“He’s not going to improve sitting on the bench… He needs to play basketball,” said Charles Barkley, when justifying why Bronny James needs to head to the G League. Taken in as the 55th overall pick during the 2024 NBA Draft, LeBron’s eldest son did not have good college stats backing his case. His struggles have continued. Under JJ Redick’s initiative to place him as a ‘development player’, he’ll split his time with the Lakers‘ affiliate. 1 game in, Bronny’s presence is already informing viewers of varying rules across leagues!

Earlier today, Bronny James played in his debut game with the South Bay Lakers. He and his squad took on Salt Lake City, the affiliate of the Utah Jazz. As Quincy Olivari made a free throw, the Lakers’ lead increased by not 1, but 2 points!

The commentator addressed this too, as he revealed, “If you’re new to the G League, it’s one foul shot for two points until we get to the final 2 minutes of regulation, then you gotta earn your money.” The moment was highlighted by the official X account of LakeShow Highlights. The caption writer was also impressed with the varying rules in the G-League!

Thanks to Bronny’s presence, the G League game may have seen an increase in viewership. That is when compared to the previous South Bay games. After all, this is the same hoopster who sold 500,000 jerseys within the first 24 hours of its release! All the seats at the UCLA Health Training Center were sold out for the game, too. So, the G-League is gaining more attention, and fans are learning new things. As they learn new things, they react!

Bronny James’ South Bay debut draws ‘fan-envy’ with G League’s shooting policy!

One social media user kicked things off, by stating, “Should give this a try in the preseason for the next season”

They didn’t use the G League’s free throw role before 2019. The G-League is known as the research and development arm of the NBA for a reason. After all, it has experimented with several concepts over the years. Along with the FT rule, other changes that the league had continued following in their games include the transition take foul, the 14-second shot clock reset on an advance, a two-minute overtime period, the away-from-the-play foul rule, and the reset timeout.

While such things may work for affiliate franchises, it would be too hard to just cast away decades’ worth of rules in the main league. Therefore, Adam Silver and Co. have to be picky over the changes. For now, there is nothing to indicate that the free throw rule would come to the NBA. Despite whether it’s adopted or not, fans in the comments section are certainly looking to make a case for it.

Another social media user wrote, “This is a cool idea. See, good things do happen in the world?”

The NBA did not implement the free throw rule. However, that does not mean they haven’t implemented anything the G-League has experimented with! The league introduced both the Coach’s Challenge and the 14-second shot clock on offensive rebounds. So, there are some “good things” to be happy about! However, this shouldn’t mean there can’t be more of the “good things”, right?

Amid all these appealing messages, however, was one that indirectly may have made a case against implementing the rule. They wrote, “A lot of bad FT shooters would love this too lol.”

Long-time enthusiasts have grown up watching stars like Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal, and DeAndre Jordan. However, amidst their offensive and defensive prowess, the one thing they were really bad at was free throws. Shaq made only 5,935 of 11,252 attempts (52.7%). He shot 5.5% better from the field than he did from the line. This may have nullified the concept of a ‘charity stripe.’

It’s important to remember that this is the same player who shot one 3-pointer in his entire career. Now, imagine if the G League’s free throw rule was implemented during Shaq’s time. Fans would have had another thing to marvel about regarding his legacy.

As it turns out, the free throw rule is not something that basketball fans only want for the NBA. A netizen wrote his comment in Japanese, which when translated, says, “Please adopt this rule in B League as well. Free throws are terrible”, accompanied by a smiling face with a halo emoji. The recent Olympics saw the rise of Yuki Kawamura, who plays for the Grizzlies. Before that, however, he spent 4 years in Japan’s B-League, wherein he totaled 602-737 free throws. With the G League rule, his stats may improve.

Another individual highlighted his surprise at the differing rule: “I was wondering why they was shooting only one free throws and didn’t pay attention to the score…” Well, it’s good that Bronny James’ presence is getting hoops enthusiasts to learn new things!

Overall, the majority of reactions aligned the people with the G League rule. Some even directly or indirectly asked for it to come to the NBA. With so many changes in the NBA already planned, it remains to be seen whether Adam Silver will include this in his agenda.