USC Basketball: Ex-Trojan Believes Bronny James Arrival Could Help Boost School's Rep

Especially against a certain crosstown rival.

Former USC Trojans All-Pac-10 shooting guard-turned-12-year NBA pro Nick Young has weighed in on the arrival of Bronny James and its impact on Andy Enfield's 6-5 2023-24 edition of his old team.

During a new interview on Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson's podcast Scoop B Radio, the 6'7" swingman revealed that he believed USC's recruitment of Bronny could be a boon to the program's national profile, given that another Pac-12/future Big Ten standout has generally been considered the more reputable Southern California hoops hotbed.

We'll let Swaggy P elaborate. 

"Him coming to USC does a lot for us, you know?" James said. "Of course we’re going to have sold out games, everyone’s going to be there and we’re going to have the Hollywood crowd and I think we need that because I hate to say it, but USC was like the Clippers college, you know? We had UCLA and everybody wanted to go there but it’s time for us to shine, you know? I think that it’s unfortunate what happened but, hopefully things will turn around and he can get out there and play and ball out, you know?" 

Bronny James has been playing under a minutes restriction while he recuperates from his summer cardiac arrest, and though his offensive output has been fairly modest, his defense already looks NBA-ready. Isaiah Collier, his freshman colleague, was the No. 1 recruit out of their mutual high school class, and has been performing pretty well outside of his predilection for fouling. But James, not Collier, has been the national story of the season for USC thus far.

Their full interview is listenable here.