When most people think about one word to describe college basketball, most would reference something about the great atmospheres, the crazy upsets in March Madness, or the wild recruiting landscape.
But the best summary of the sport is actually this – nepotism.
Basketball, at the end of the day, is a business. And connections are everything. A lot of times, it’s as much about who you know as what you know.
Look no further than Arkansas basketball’s current roster. Four of the Hogs’ nine rotation pieces either have brothers or fathers that played for head coach John Calipari during his previous stops at Memphis and Kentucky.
The fathers of Adou Thiero, DJ Wagner and Billy Richmond III all featured for the Tigers in the 2000s and Karter Knox’s brother, Kevin, became a lottery pick after his time with the Wildcats. Additionally, senior Kareem Watkins is Wagner’s half-brother.
Calipari has clearly made use of the power of connections throughout his career, even dubbing his recruiting model as “La Familia.” The legendary coach also understands the power of building a brand. Throughout his years at Kentucky, numerous celebrities such as Drake made appearances in Lexington, making the Wildcats the face of college basketball in popular culture.
Now at Arkansas, we could see Calipari’s latest celebrity outreach in the Class of 2025 through Bryce James, the middle child of future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
John Calipari Gets Eyes on Bryce James
The Head Hog was in attendance on the Nike EYBL circuit to watch the highly-rated Boozer twins, Cameron and Cayden, in action in May. Through that game, Coach Cal got the chance to watch James in person – and he put on a show.
Calipari and the many other elite coaches in attendance witnessed James drop 21 points on 5 of 9 shooting from deep, and grab 5 rebounds.
More recently, the Arkansas coach has made the trip to the Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina in July. He went to many of those games to keep an eye on Cameron Boozer, but once again ended up watching James show out.
It begs the question – could Arkansas consider going after James, too?
Breaking Down Bryce James as a Prospect
On paper, James doesn’t look like the exact type of prospect Calipari would traditionally pursue. He’s currently a consensus three-star prospect in the 2025 class rated No. 150 nationally by Rivals and No. 181 by 247Sports. He did recently crack the Top 100 on On3 but boy, howdy, did the young man get raked over the coals for it.
Has has struggled to make a big statistical impact on the loaded roster at Sierra Canyon High School, splitting time between JV and varsity as a sophomore and coming off the bench as a junior.
James is currently listed at 6-foot-4 by recruiting services, but he is rumored to have been grown to 6-foot-6, and is seen as a “late bloomer” prospect still trying to put his game together. But one thing’s for sure, his athleticism already jumps off the page.
He currently holds just two offers, from Ohio State and Duquesne, but there’s certainly a path for James to shoot up the rankings and earn more scholarship opportunities if he can earn a starting role and put up numbers at Sierra Canyon during his senior season.
As it stands though, the Cleveland native is what he is – a three-star prospect well outside the top 100 in his class. Calipari is the best in the business at recruiting, so does he even have time to pursue a player like that?
John Calipari’s New Roster-Building Model Leaves Room for Bryce James
While Calipari will likely focus on building an eight or nine-man core of blue-chip recruits and high-profile transfers – as he did this season – and fill out the rest of his spots with less heralded contributors on traditional scholarships.
One of those supplemental additions to this year’s roster could mirror the hypothetical addition of James in 2025. Casmir Chavis, who helped round out Arkansas’ squad with his recent commitment, is a three-star guard ranked No. 135 nationally by On3. He will likely start with a very limited role on campus with the potential to work his way into more playing time and NIL money.
Looking at where Chavis stacks up in the national rankings, it appears James could slot right into that role as the 10th or 11th man on the roster – and that’s before we consider the very obvious off-court impact of adding a player from that particular James family.
As we’ve already seen with the case of LeBron James’ eldest son, Bronny, the James family carries with it a heap of media attention and hype. Having arguably the greatest basketball player of all time courtside at Bud Walton Arena would blow the roof off the place, as well as generate a ton of additional media coverage around the program.
Calipari is a brand builder at heart, and can surely recognize the benefit of that. But, on the other side of the coin, he’s been around the block more than a few times, and can surely also recognize the potential cons of going after James.
The Cautionary Tale of Bronny James
The first James to leave the nest, Bronny, has been the victim of the burden of his last name during the last couple years of his recruitment, his time at USC, and his NBA Draft selection by the Los Angeles Lakers that made him teammates with his father. Open the comments of any social media post concerning Bronny and you’ll see a flood of negativity about his game and his place in the league.
In many ways, most of these critiques are unwarranted. After all, Bronny didn’t ask for any of this. He also, as Fox’s Colin Cowherd pointed out, did not use up one of the Lakers’ lottery picks, as he was just the 55th overall selection.
Can you name many late second-round picks that turned out to be anything special? When you consider the fact that Bronny’s selection likely played a role in the Lakers being able to ink LeBron to an extension, the draft choice appears to be completely worth it, and then some. But anyway, that’s a rant for another day.
In the case of Bryce, you would assume the James family has learned a thing or two from the media circus around Bronny. It’s unlikely we’ll see the Klutch Sports agency apparatus push the younger James brother to be a one-and-done player the way they did his older sibling.
Bronny’s lineage shouldn’t be held against him, and his performance in the NBA certainly shouldn’t be held against Bryce. If the Hogs do end up recruiting him, it wouldn’t be to lead the team or anything like that. Instead, he would likely just be a depth piece that would feature sporadically.
The Potential Shockwaves of Bryce James at Arkansas
If Calipari was impressed by what he saw on the EYBL circuit and decides to dive in on recruiting James, it would definitely make for even more interesting headlines for Arkansas basketball. It sounds like Coach Cal already has a relationship established with the family, as he said in a 2021 radio interview that him and LeBron are friends.
It would be fascinating to see him leverage his many bonds in the basketball world to pull the best player of the 21st century to within one degree of connection to the Razorbacks.
It’s hard to quantify the massive amounts of exposure that would bring to the program. Calipari is the most recognizable face in the coaching world and has put dozens of players into the NBA. LeBron is the most famous basketball player on the planet, and the first and only active NBA player to become a billionaire. That is a match made in marketing heaven.
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Highlights from Bryce James’ junior season:
