Throughout his entire high school career, fans were charged up to watch Bronny James play college basketball. Bronny, too, wanted the chance to move up a level and prove his mettle at the NCAA circuit. The opportune moment arrived when James Jr. decided to commit to the University of Southern California Trojans in May 2023. However, after a life-threatening cardiac arrest and an abysmal season with the USC team, Bronny decided to de-commit from the college only after his freshman year. This raised eyebrows, as the head coach Andy Enfield also resigned from the Trojans’ coveted position.

Essentially Sports had an exclusive chat with Silas Demary Jr., who had also committed to the USC in April 2023 but later decided to drop out of the program. But, as per Demary Jr.’s confession, Bronny had no impact on his decision-making. Despite opting to declare for the NBA, James Jr. “never caused a problem” for the Trojans or influenced any other player. Our representative BG12 thus got the real reason behind Demary Jr. changing his college to the Georgia Bulldogs, which cleared Bronny’s name out of all rumors.

Silas Demary Jr.: “Oh, no! It… It wasn’t like I was….I think I was committed there for probably half the year of my senior year before I ended up de-committing. I kind of knew he (Bronny) was going there (USC) for the longest like, it was a lot of murmurs and everything popping up on social media but never had a problem with him being on the ticker. I know he plays the right way it was just hard for me to go there when they had…It was… it was no room they had the number one player… number one player in the country going there Isaiah Collier and then they had… they had one of their seniors come back. So that’s two point guards right there. I be number three and it’s just hard to find minutes. Like obviously I’m willing to compete but it’s kind of hard to compete with a guy that’s been there for two and a half years. Then you obviously got to play the guy that’s number one player in the country. So I just thought it was best for me to just de-commit and Georgia was one of those schools that reached out and said you would have the opportunity to earn a starting spot as a freshman. You be able to have to play and you be able to compete for minutes, so I thought that was…they gave me the most fair shot.”

Just months into his practice, Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest during one of his sessions at the Galen Center in July. He was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. And at that moment, a lot of questions were raised over Bronny’s future participation considering he didn’t look in the best of his health. However, he put them all to rest soon, as he recovered and made a comeback to the sport again. After missing a few games initially, Bronny made his debut against Long Beach State in December.

Bronny James struggled in his debut season at USC

Playing for 17 minutes on debut, Bronny could only score four points, three rebounds, and two assists. This set the tone for what was to follow, as, throughout the season, both Bronny and USC struggled. The situation got more complicated when their mainstay players Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier had to miss a few games because of injuries. It presented the perfect opportunity for James Jr. to assert his dominance. Unfortunately, Bronny couldn’t capitalize on the situation and ended the season with only 4.8 points per game.

Post that, he decided to declare for the NBA draft and fulfill his father’s dream of playing alongside him at the highest level. In June this year, James was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA draft, as LeBron and Bronny became the first-ever father-son duo to be a part of the NBA squad at the same time. While it’s a win-win situation for the James family, Demary Jr. also benefited from his commitment to the Bulldogs.

Silas Demary Jr. amped up the game for the Georgia Bulldogs

Demary Jr. got a chance to start in 36 of the 37 games he played for them after getting into the Bulldogs. Thus, his new team allowed him to showcase his exceptional balling skills, which couldn’t have happened at USC, as they already had two point guards in Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis.

He made the most of the chance presented to him, averaging a decent 9.7 points with 3.7 rebounds per game. This cemented his place as a mainstay for the Bulldogs. Now that Demary Jr. has revealed the real reason behind de-committing from USC, fans will probably stop speculating about the role of Bronny James in any of the matters at USC.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.