Los Angeles, California - While it might be hard not to compare Bronny James' playing abilities to his father's, he's still a growing kid! Yet fans are weighing in that King James is no innocent bystander.

Since high school, Bronny has been in the basketball world's limelight thanks to his legendary NBA father, LeBron James.

After enrolling at USC as a freshman last year, the pressure to perform has been heightened amid recovering from a cardiac arrest health scare over the summer.

On Monday, the 19-year-old athlete was thrown into the throngs of chatter once again when he was removed from ESPN’s 2024 NBA mock draft. According to the prediction, he's expected to be picked a year later, in 2025.

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Frustrated by the speculation surrounding his son's future on the court, dad LeBron took to X to respond to the noise about Bronny's draft stock, and he wasn't pleased.

"Can yall please just let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball," the Lakers' hooper wrote in the now deleted tweet. "The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do.

"If y’all don’t know he doesn’t care what a mock draft says, he just WORKS! Earned Not Given!"

He added: "And to all the other kids out there striving to be great just keep your head down, blinders on and keep grinding. These Mock Drafts doesn’t matter one bit! I promise you! Only the WORK MATTERS!! Let’s talk REAL BASKETBALL PEOPLE!"

Yet the comments may have backfired, as many came to social media court to check him.

Although LeBron James quickly deleted his thread of tweets requesting people leave Bronny be, many had already shared his post, sparking buzz across the internet.

Some fans have even blamed LeBron for Bronny's media attention, saying he put too much pressure on his son over the years.

"I mean LeBron can tweet that, but he is putting pressure on Bronny by saying sh*t like 'Bronny could be in the league right now' or 'Bronny could play for us right now.' bro needs to take his advice and just let his son ball," one fan wrote on Instagram.

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"Why Bron acting like he hasn’t been pushing the whole playing with Bronny narrative for a decade no," another added.

"Only Bron would publicly hype his son up & then get upset when people are critical," another fan said.

On Tuesday morning, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith didn't mince words about the situation, saying, "This is all his [LeBron] fault. All of it... You're gonna tweet about folks needing to leave your son alone? You did that. LeBron is entirely and completely culpable for any kind of critique coming in Bronny's direction."

"Own it. It's you. It's not the media," he blasted.

After LeBron James' efforts to protect his son Bronny from media attention seem to have backfired with some fans, will he heed his own advice and allow Bronny to focus on his basketball career without added pressure?