INDIANAPOLIS — Bryce James sat in the corner of Arizona’s locker room Friday, dressed in a Wildcats hoodie while he looked at his phone.
To his left was a man with the approximate build of an offensive lineman, wearing a red Arizona polo and matching hat.
The message was clear:
Do not engage.
Bryce, the middle child of Lakers star LeBron James, is a freshman with the Wildcats and is redshirting while the rest of the team prepares to play Michigan in the Final Four on Saturday night. But he was not made available to reporters during the team’s open locker room on Thursday or Friday.
The decision to make Bryce unavailable to the media was made by Klutch Sports, the agency that represents Bryce, his older brother Bronny, and his father, not by Arizona, according to Yahoo Sports.
While Bronny was a top-20 recruit when he graduated from Sierra Canyon in 2023, Bryce’s recruitment looked much different. He wasn’t as highly touted and his recruitment wasn’t nearly as public. He is listed as a 6-foot-4 shooting guard, roughly five inches shorter than his father.
Bronny appeared in 25 games in his lone college season, which was slowed by his July 2023 cardiac arrest.
Bryce committed to Arizona on Jan. 1, 2025 and announced his decision in an Instagram post. He had offers from Ohio State and Duquesne, which is coached by Dru Joyce III, LeBron’s high school teammate.
“It was his decision to make,” LeBron said in January of Bryce’s commitment to Arizona. “He went where he felt comfortable. Coach Lloyd is a straight shooter. … Happy to be a part of Bear Down community now.”
In an extremely rare public availability with reporters, Bryce James told media in August that it was possible he would redshirt. Lloyd confirmed in February that he would.
“Bryce has gotten so much better,” Lloyd told reporters on Friday. “Watching him practice yesterday I was like, wow, the progress he’s made—he probably doesn’t even realize how much better he’s gotten in the last six, seven, eight months. His body has changed. A lot of his fundamentals and techniques have really sharpened up.”
Lloyd on Friday announced he would be staying with Arizona on a new contract after reports swirled that North Carolina was targeting him to replace Hubert Davis. Assuming Bryce does not enter the transfer portal and remains with the Wildcats, he will have the longest college career in the James family.
“Once our season wraps up and everyone gets a little bit of a break, I’m excited to get back in the gym with him, because I think there’s another big jump in him … He’s built a really good foundation for himself to prepare himself off of, so I can’t wait to see what it looks like,” Lloyd said.
