While more and more people are starting to believe LeBron James is the greatest basketball player ever, he continues to be very polarizing. A sizable number of people believe he has an outsized amount of influence on the Los Angeles Lakers and that he and Klutch Sports strong-arm the Lakers into certain personnel and coaching decisions.
The critics claim the Lakers firing head coach Darvin Ham was simply an attempt to appease James and allow him to deflect blame and responsibility for the team’s loss in the first round of the playoffs.
The team’s head coaching search is underway, and Byron Scott, who won three NBA championships with it during the Showtime era, had a bold suggestion while on Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed.” He said that since, in his mind, James has dictated a lot of the Lakers’ decisions, James should be their next head coach while also playing for them.
.@official_bscott says LeBron should be the Lakers next head coach 👀 pic.twitter.com/hCoqabF6be
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) May 8, 2024
“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 that’s going on in this organization from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint. So if you’re going to allow him to make those decisions, sit on the bench and make those decisions as well. Be the head coach.”
“… As far as I’m concerned, the only person that’s he’s gonna really trust is himself. And since you’re making a lot of these decisions anyway, why not put him in that seat?”
Scott also criticized how JJ Redick, James’ co-host for the “Mind the Game” podcast, has been discussed as a serious head coaching candidate for the Lakers. He seems to believe Redick is only a candidate because of his relationship with the superstar.
While there were plenty of player-coaches in the NBA during its first few decades, its current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t allow active players to also serve as coaches.