IF LEBRON JAMES IS THE PLAYER-COACH OF THE LAKERS, HE CAN FIRE HIMSELF
Eight coaches have lost jobs under James, including three over five years in Los Angeles, so let’s see if he knows more than those he cans — a crisis in a league where Kevin Durant plays the same game
When does entitlement become a distasteful pointed finger, a cheap way out? The question should be asked of LeBron James, who has fired three coaches in five years and watched eight lose gigs during a 21-season career. Is he proud of the gloom? When in doubt, shout for a clout? Even if you win an infrequent championship for James — still four, which is below the forbidden Mendoza Line in sports measuring terms — you might be sacked in quick order.
Ask Frank Vogel. He won in 2020 before he was canned by James in 2022 and this week by Kevin Durant in Phoenix. The other was Tyronn Lue, who literally became sick coaching LeBron and was fired in Cleveland shortly after James joined the Lakers. You might wonder why fast-food workers making $20 an hour have more secure jobs than NBA coaches. Let us honor the other men who tried: Paul Silas, Brendan Malone, Mike Brown, David Blatt, Luke Walton and, of late, Darvin Ham.
“You could kind of tell the way the air was, how things were going around here, there was going to have to be a change,” James said in 2005, when Silas was crushed.
Who knew the same speech would apply in 2024? Only Erik Spoelstra survived, and when James wanted him gone in Miami, Dwyane Wade pleaded otherwise. Would Pat Riley replace him? “I told him, ‘You don't want Riley to coach this team.’ You don't want The Godfather to come down,” Wade said. “He did it in 2006. I experienced it. That was enough.” They managed to win two titles together, before James went back to northeast Ohio and then to Los Angeles and wherever he might go next.
This is a miserable time for James and Durant, who have buried their latest failures on those who didn’t deserve to lose gigs. The Suns will hire Mike Budenholzer, who was fired by Milwaukee only two years after he won a championship. Though he grew up in Arizona, he’ll have the same problems with an aging Durant and a sluggish Bradley Beal. Is he already on the firing line in the slipshod world of owner Mat Ishbia, who was hired too quickly by a league that wanted to replace troubled Robert Sarver? If he considered hiring his college coach, did he realize Tom Izzo is much better off at Michigan State than roasting in the desert?
If James remains with the Lakers, we’ll ask why he stuck with a possible non-playoff team when he supposedly aches to win glory. Wouldn’t he be better off in New York or Dallas, even if he took less money? He appears serious in claiming he’d play for JJ Redick, his podcast partner, whose only coaching experience is with a fourth-grade team in Brooklyn. I have a better idea, something not seen in the league since 1978.
Why doesn’t LeBron serve as a player-coach?
That way, he can fire himself.
I’m not alone with such thoughts. Byron Scott, the former Lakers champion, happens to agree. “I got nothing but love and respect for LeBron. I love him. I think he's one of the greatest players that ever played this game, but it's obvious to me, at least, that he's making a lot of decisions in this organization from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint," Scott said on Fox. “As far as I'm concerned, the only person that he's going to really trust is himself, and since you're making a lot of these decisions anyway, why not put him in that seat?”
Chances are, such an assignment would be chaos. Imagine him screaming at players on the floor, ordering them to the bench. Imagine the angry sessions with officials. Life wasn’t good for Magic Johnson in 1993-94, when he coached the Lakers and went 5-11 after his playing career. James would like to buy the Lakers, but Jeanie Buss is keeping the franchise and Rob Pelinka will remain the general manager. So, LeBron can toy with a lineup that includes Anthony Davis. Budenholzer was considered but chose Phoenix. Lue will be considered but likely will stay with the Clippers. Many smart people think it’s a bad job. “What are you looking for? What do you need as a head coach to get this team to the next level?” Scott said. “You got two of the best players in the NBA … at the end of the day, to me, I'm looking at it like, just make LeBron the coach.”
Bill Russell served as a player-coach in his final three seasons, leading the Celtics to two championships. Dave Cowens was a player-coach in Boston in the late 1970s. Why not approach LeBron, just to create buzz for a team bypassed by Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Dallas, among others in the Western Conference? Let him prove he knows more than the coaches he dismisses, right? Recently, he made a shrewd remark about today’s players: "They don't watch basketball. It's that simple. I’ve realized they only watch highlights, and they don't watch basketball.”
Well, make them watch as coach. As I’ll always say, James doesn’t quite belong in any all-time discussions with Michael Jordan, the greatest player ever. The Chicago Bulls tried Doug Collins, who was too wayward early in his career. They hired Phil Jackson, who arrived in 1989 and won six titles before the dynasty was wreckingballed in 1998. Jordan always laughed when asked if he wanted to try coaching.
LeBron would say yes. If not, let him sign elsewhere. We’re all tired of watching him plow through the people in charge, a crybaby habit at 39 1/2.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.