30 newyork| february17–march1, 2020
becausethegameshavebeenmovedtocsunandsomany
ticketsare beingsoldnottodie-hard Sierra Canyonfans
buttothelegionsofcuriousoutsiders.Atonegame,the
playersheard theorganizerswere charging$100for
courtsideseats.“IfI everpay $100towatchsomehigh-
schoolplayers...,”Williamssaid.
“I wouldn’t pay $100toseeanNBAteam,” Franksaid.“That’sa
lotofmoneytowatchsomebasketball.”
AttheHoophallClassicinSpringfield,Massachusetts—home
tothebasketballHallofFame—SierraCanyon’spresencesoldout
theeventinJanuaryforthefirsttimein 19 years.Therewere 40
policeofficerstohandlethestanding-room-onlycrowd,andthe
documentary crewshadcamerasandboomoperatorsracingin
andoutoftheteam’s huddlesduringtime-outs.Thiswasontop
ofthe 36 mediamembersseatedalongthesidelines,plusthecam-
erascollectingfootage forSLAMmagazine,BallerTV, andGlobal
KidMedia,a growingdigitalempire inwhichVedantGupta,a
13-year-oldfromMichigan,interviewsathleteswiththegoalof
becomingthe“1stnationaltv sportssidelinereporterasa kid.” I
foundGuptaandhisdad,Vipul,hangingaroundoutsidethe
Sierra Canyon locker room after one of the team’s games. Vipul
did most of the talking. “We came here because he wanted to talk
to Dwyane and LeBron, but we keep getting pushed out,” Vipul
said, complaining about the tight security around the team. After
Vedant, who is just over five feet tall, landed an interview with
seven-foot-three Harold Yu, Vipul interrupted his son’s question-
ing to pull out his phone and show off @globalkidmedia, which
has 1,061 Instagram followers, and instructed Vedant to ask Yu a
question in Mandarin. “You better not say you don’t know how to
say anything, because you’ve taken a semester of it,” Vipul told his
son, before suggesting Yu might be able to help build the Global
Kid Media brand back on the mainland.
EBRONHASSAIDhis“greatest achievement”
wouldbetoplayintheNBAwith hisson.When
KenGriffey Jr. brieflyplayedalongsidehisdadasa
20-year-oldcenterfielderfortheSeattleMariners in 1990,it felt
likea novelty rippedfromfather-sonfantasycamp. Butlast year,
threesecond-generationphenoms(VladimirGuerrero’sson,Vladi-
mirJr .; DanteBichette’ssonBo;andCraigBiggio’sson Cavan)were
startersfortheTorontoBlueJays.Andbasketball is even further
along:TheWallStreetJournalfoundin 2016 that, at the time,
almosthalfoftheplayersintheNBAwere related to college or
professionalathletes.Thechildren of athletes are now blessed not
onlywithgoodgenesbutwith the more traditional marker of
dynasties:wealth,whichathletes now make much more of than
theydidevena generationago and which, in this context, affords
theirchildrenthesuperiortraining, nutrition, and expertise now
requiredtocompeteinmodern youth sports. In this way, Sierra
Canyonrepresentedonefuture, in which elite schools that once
propagated boardroom dynasties and allowed Hollywood royalty
to reproduce itself, one “child star” offspring of former stars after
another, could do the same in sports.
Even if the NBA drops its prohibition against players joining the
league less than a year after their high-school graduation, the earliest
Bronny could play with his dad is 2023, when LeBron will be 38.
And while LeBron’s regular Instagram posts about his son have
fueled a frenzy of attention and speculation, for the time being,
at least, he has made some attempt to temper expectations. The
Jameses have prohibited Bronny from doing any interviews as a
freshman, for instance, even as an overseas sportsbook tookbets not
only on how many games Sierra Canyon would win this season butBailey.Yu.