LeBron James’ 17-year-old son Bronny faces racist abuse for taking a white girl to high school prom

LeBron James‘ 17-year-old son Bronny is being trolled with vile racist abuse for taking a white girl to his high school prom after sharing images of the happy couple arriving at the event in a $326,000 custom Mercedes GT sports car. 

LeBron Raymone ‘Bronny’ James Jr. – the eldest son of the basketball legend – shared a series of images of himself and his prom date on Instagram on Wednesday, prompting a bitter backlash of racist criticism from trolls who made cruel comments about his choice of companion for the evening. 

Bronny attended the school dance this past weekend with one of his classmates, teenager Peyton Gelfuso. The blonde-haired beauty – who is a senior at Sierra Canyon School, where Bronny is a junior – donned an all-white, haltered gown with a plunging neckline for the event.

The sparkling dress was covered head to toe in crystals and feathers, and it left her long legs on full display.

Bronny, for his part, looked dapper in a blue and black patterned tuxedo, which he paired with blue suede shoes.

The 17-year-old posted a snap of himself and Peyton posing together before the dance to his Instagram Stories. He could be seen smiling from ear to ear in the photo, as he put his arm around his date.

Some people on the internet were not happy with his decision to take someone who is ‘light skinned’ to prom, and they took to Twitter to share their thoughts.

‘Not a light skinned woman already,’ wrote one person, while another added, ‘Welp, on the bright side, LeBron has more kids. Maybe they will do better.’

‘That girl is whiter than white bruh,’ said someone else.

A fourth tweet read, ‘Should’ve got a black queen like his dad,’ with an angry face emoji.

‘Lost another black king to a money hungry white girl,’ a different Twitter user tweeted. ‘Bron gotta do better SMH.’

Someone else branded her a ‘gold digger,’ quoting the lyrics from the song Gold Digger by Kanye West, while others simply shared GIFs and memes showcasing their disappointment in his choice of date. 

Other people defended the budding basketball star, with one writing, ‘Bronny James really has grown adults in shambles over the fact he took a white girl to prom in 2022.’

‘Anyone that’s mad at Bronny’s prom date, you are part of the problem in today’s society,’ agreed someone else. 

Another Twitter user added, ‘Bunch of hating a** mofos in this threat. The kid will most likely play in the NBA with his legendary dad and make millions in salary endorsements, he can go to prom with who TF he wants and the rest of us can’t do s**t about it regardless of our opinions. STFU already.’

‘It’s hilarious seeing all these black people have an issue with his prom choice. Bro, y’all are so pathetic,’ read a different tweet.

‘MFs who are happy with their lives don’t make assumptions about teenagers based on the skin color of their dates,’ said someone else.

‘Black people scream racism and then go there when dude dates a white girl. SMH,’ wrote another person.

‘Maybe let’s just let the kid enjoy his prom without trashing him and his date. He looks great,’ defended someone else.

‘She looks great. They are not responsible for any feelings – good, bad, or otherwise – that their pictures brings up for anyone. Happy prom night.’ 

‘These dudes on here need to remember they are talking about someone’s underage daughter,’ replied another user. ‘Check yourselves fellas.’

The school that Bronny and Peyton attend together – Sierra Canyon School – costs around $40,000 a year and was previously attended by other famous faces like Kylie and Kendall Jenner.

Bronny drove himself and his date to the prom in a black Mercedes AMG GT Coupe, which starts at $326,000 but can cost more depending on customizations.

The car was decked out in what appeared to be a custom paint job – which included small, white arrows on the back half of the vehicle.

In the wake of Bronny’s backlash, alleged photos of his dad, Lebron, at his own prom with a white woman have resurfaced online.

The pictures were originally shared in 2017 by someone who claimed to be the niece of Lebron’s date, but they have been re-shared amid the recent response to his son’s prom companion.

Peyton shared a snap of herself in her stunning dress to her own account, but when Bronny complimented her in the comment section, the post was quickly flooded with hate.

The photo showed her starring straight towards the camera as her curled locks fell around her face.

‘You killt,’ Bronny wrote, alongside a heart-eye emoji.

‘LeBron Raymone James Jr. I am so disappointed and dissatisfied with you prom date,’ replied one person.

‘Delete this comment, LeBron James Jr.,’ said another. 

A third wrote, ‘Bruh no way you serious.’ 

‘LeBron ain’t taught you ’bout off court game I see,’ added a different user. 

‘Disappointed in you brotha,’ wrote another commenter, while someone else said, ‘Another lost soul.’

Bronny’s mom, Savannah James, took to Instagram to congratulate her son on attending the big event, and she said she felt ‘tons of emotions’ after seeing her eldest son go to prom.

‘So @bronny went to prom this past weekend… Tons of emotions and realizations. Time really flies,’ she gushed. ‘So proud of you young man! I will always have your front and your back!’

She shared a photo that showed her tying Bronny’s bowtie, while another featured her fixing his bowtie.

The final pic in the post showed Bronny’s younger sister, Zhuri James, seven, looking at the camera with a serious expression on her face, as her brother stood in his prom ‘fit behind her. 

‘Zhuri is processing all of this too!’ Savannah added in the caption.

LeBron – who also shares son Bryce Maximus James, 14, with Savannah – reposted her picture to his own account, adding, ‘One thing she don’t play about is her f**king brothers!’ 

In the past, Bronny’s dad slammed the NFL for being run by ‘a bunch of old white men’ and was accused of ‘racism’ by Former President Donald Trump. 

Last April, Trump called the professional basketball player ‘racist’ after he spoke out about the police killing of a 16-year-old Ohio teenager online.

The NBA star, 37, tweeted a photo of Nicholas Reardon, the Columbus police officer who shot and killed Ma’Khia Bryant on April 20, 2021. 

He captioned the image of the officer: ‘You’re next. #Accountability.’

He appeared to be referring to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial which came days earlier. When Derek was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, LeBron also tweeted, ‘Accountability.’ 

But Trump was unhappy with LeBron’s response, calling him ‘divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning’ in a statement.

‘LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,’ said Trump.

‘His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting and demeaning. He may be a great basketball player but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!’

The athlete later deleted the tweet, adding in another post that he took it down because he thought it was being used ‘to create more hate.’

‘ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!’ he explained.

‘I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate. This isn’t about one officer.

‘It’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.’

LeBron previously slammed the NFL for having ‘a bunch of old white men’ owning teams with ‘slave mentality’ while chatting with his business partner Maverick Carter, Los Angeles Rams star Todd Gurley, and actor/rapper Ice Cube about NFL player protests over social injustice in a 2018 episode of his HBO show The Shop.

‘In the NFL, they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,’ he said as Todd nodded along. ‘And it’s like, “This is my team, you do what I f**kin’ tell y’all to do, or we get rid of y’all.”‘

He also previously revealed he had to learn to trust white people when he was 14 years old, after he started attending a private Catholic school for the first time. 

LeBron said that when he began at the St Vincent-St Mary High School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, he had no intention of becoming friends with anyone who was white. 

‘When I first went to the ninth grade, I was like, “I’m not f***king with white people,”‘ he said on his show. ‘I was so institutionalized from growing up in the hood, it’s like “They don’t f**k with us, they don’t want us to succeed.”‘