Bronny James stays close to home with USC commitment

One of the strangest, most-followed, yet secretive high school basketball recruiting journeys in recent memory is over. Bronny James is staying home.

After months of speculation, James announced Saturday on Instagram that he is committing to USC, just a few miles down the 110 Freeway from father LeBron James’ stomping grounds at Crypto.com Arena with the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s the next step toward the elder James’ expressed hope of playing in the NBA with his son.

After USC football’s rise to national power under coach Lincoln Riley and quarterback Caleb Williams, the young James’ arrival will help transform USC basketball into possibly the most-watched collegiate basketball program in the country. His commitment completes a gem of a recruiting class for coach Andy Enfield that includes No. 1-ranked point guard Isaiah Collier and power forward Arrinten Page from Marietta, Ga. Wheeler as well as Charlotte (N.C.) Combine Academy guard Silas Demary Jr.

James, ranked the 33rd-best player in his class by 247Sports, was named a McDonald’s All-American after averaging 14.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals last season.

James’ top three schools were USC, Ohio State and Oregon. Each made sense for a different reason — USC was close to home, Ohio State was close to his birthplace and Oregon was close to Nike’s headquarters, which signed James to a name, image and likeness deal.

At the time, however, his recruitment was kept under wraps — even to interested programs. The only official visit James took was to Ohio State, and it was unclear if he’d received an offer from Oregon.

Despite James’ talent and his father’s expressed plan for an NBA path, the attention around his name had likely depressed his recruitment, according to West Coast recruiting expert Dinos Trigonis.

“When you’re a college coach, you’ll say, ‘Hey, this guy’s a good player’ … could be a good player [by] end of the first year,” Trigonis said. “But when you see all the other things that program would have to put up with, you make the decision, is it worth dealing with all the other stuff that goes on?”

Attention will follow James to USC, where he’ll compete with Collier and a large group of guards and wings vying for minutes. The path to playing time would’ve been simpler at Ohio State and Oregon, but James earned minutes playing alongside future pros and Division I recruits at Sierra Canyon in his freshman season. He is widely expected by high school coaches to make an immediate impact at the college level.

“Eventually, when you get to the next level, most of the kids have been 1,500-point scorers … it boils down to making winning plays,” Temecula Rancho Christian High coach Ray Barefield said.