"It was embarrassing": Gilbert Arenas spills the beans on Alijah Arenas' humiliating Bryce James' team in middle school

Gilbert Arenas explained how Alijah Arenas' team embarrassed Bryce James’ school because the latter did not have a middle age basketball team until James arrived. Arenas and James both attended school in Los Angeles, California, with Arenas attending Chatsworth and James attending Sierra Canyon.

Arenas' father, Gilbert, revealed this on his YouTube show "No Chill Gil" on Tuesday.

“So all Sierra Canyon kids in the middle school, they wanted to be on the basketball team but the Sierra Canyon didn’t have a basketball team like that so they all went to Heritage. Then Brony James then come and then they start a middle school team,” Gilbert said at the 00:01:37 mark of the stream.

But before James' arrival, Chatsworth had taken on Heritage in a basketball match, which Chatsworth won by an embarrassing margin according to Arenas’ father.

‘So the whole heritage starting five was supposed to be Sierra Canyon’s actual team. The score was 99-10 but it was 96-10 at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Gilbert continued. “But you know the middle school rule, you can’t break a 100. We couldn’t break a 100, so basically we could only score three points for the rest of the quarter."

“What ends up happening is what do you think it looks like when you can’t score? Throwing it between their legs, then the parents start getting mad. It was embarrassing. That was the most embarrassing part of the game,” Arenas’ father added.

However, since then, Sierra Canyon has built a formidable basketball team while Arenas is still at Chatsworth.

Both players also remain friends and could still go on to be college teammates should Arenas commit to the Arizona Wildcats after James signed for the school.

Alijah Arenas vs Bryce James: Who is rated better?

Alijah Arenas, who was reclassified from the class of 2026 to the class of 2025, is ranked the No.13 overall prospect while James is ranked outside the top 200 as per On3.

James averaged 5.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and one block per game at last year’s Nike EYBL Peach Jam last year. Meanwhile, Arenas played 16 games this season, averaging 31.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.