Stephen A. Smith is not happy about the Lakers’ decision to fire Darvin Ham after their 2024 first-round exit. The ESPN analyst went off on LeBron James in particular, blaming the constant carousel of coaches in his career as the reason why he’s won only four NBA titles instead of six like Michael Jordan.
“There’s no way Darvin Ham is gone if Anthony Davis and LeBron James want him to stay… If Anthony Davis and LeBron James hadn’t spoken against him, and LeBron spoke for him, all of those things come along with critiquing one’s GOAT status because the acrimony, the friction, the divide, the fragmentation, all of those things play a role in one’s greatness or lack thereof. Maybe that’s the reason LeBron has four rings instead of six.”
.@stephenasmith believes having 10 different head coaches takes away from LeBron James' case for the NBA GOAT.
"Maybe that's the reason LeBron has four rings instead of six." 👀 pic.twitter.com/HAOmLHAukd
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 6, 2024
LeBron’s history with coaches is incredibly complicated, as it’s clear he has always struggled to trust the coaches in charge of his teams. The only coach he unilaterally trusted from day one seemed to be Tyronn Lue, who got his job with the Cavaliers in 2016 after James pushed David Blatt out the door. The results of that move can’t be questioned, as Lue oversaw the Cavaliers’ 3-1 comeback in the 2016 Finals.
He wanted to get Erik Spoelstra fired after his first season in Miami but ended up developing a healthy respect for the coach by the end of his four years there. But the push to have Pat Riley be coach again and remove Spoelstra is used as another valid example of James’ short-sighted nature with coaches.
Removing Ham seemed to be the right thing given how he was calling out players like D’Angelo Russell, while players like Anthony Davis were openly disrespecting his strategies in the playoffs. Hopefully, the new Lakers head coach has better luck.
The Lakers Spotty Coaching History In The LeBron James Era
With the new head coach that the Lakers end up hiring, they’ll officially move to their fourth coach since LeBron joined the franchise in 2018.
Luke Walton was in charge when James joined but he was fired after one season to bring Frank Vogel in. This was a great move, as Walton wasn’t an NBA-caliber head coach while Vogel led the Lakers to a title in 2020 as they looked unstoppable before the Orlando bubble and then in the Bubble to seal the title.
This is where the Lakers’ coaching decisions become a little questionable. After an injury-ridden 2021 season led to a first-round exit, the Lakers overhauled their squad to bring in Russell Westbrook. As the Lakers missed the 2022 Playoffs because of the horrible roster Rob Pelinka built, Vogel was fired as ownership blamed him for Russ not being integrated.
The Darvin Ham hire in 2022 was also to make sure he could carve out a role for Russ, which he did by moving him to the bench, a proposition Westbrook refused under Vogel. Nonetheless, the Lakers remained a lottery team until Westbrook was removed, which transformed them into a Conference Finals team.
Despite the Conference Finals run from last year, coach Ham’s tactical shortcomings became clear when he was outclassed by Michael Malone twice. The Lakers roster complained about the same all season long, and it led to the ownership refusing to fire Ham in the winter before their humiliating first-round exit where they blew leads in every loss.
Outside of Vogel, it’s hard to say that the other coaches didn’t deserve to be sacked for the seasons they put up. Walton was a coaching bust in the NBA, while Ham was clearly out of his depth at times over the season.
It won’t be easy for the Lakers to find a coach who can manage the egos of LeBron and Davis while also building a winner, so it’ll be interesting to see how they attack this problem.
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