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LeBron James would never become an NBA head coach: 'I don't have the patience'
LeBron James doesn’t want to coach. He certainly has come a long way in a year’s time.
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You may recall January, 2016. The Cavs were humming along with a winning percentage that would leave them on pace to top 60 victories, but head coach David Blatt awoke on Jan. 22 to perhaps the most fretted-about 30-11 record in NBA history. Because of that perpetual unease and several other factors, the Cavaliers only semi-shockingly fired Blatt in favor of Tyronn Lue that day. Lue did not share Blatt’s extensive international head coaching experience, but as of Blatt’s hiring in 2014 the respected duo boasted exactly zero NBA head coaching wins between them, a mark that seemed to play wildly in Lue’s favor once paired with Tyronn’s extensive NBA history as an active player.
The Cavs went on to win a (semi-shocking) title under Lue, and they’re currently humming along far above the chaff in the Eastern Conference, dead set on what will likely be LeBron James’ seventh NBA Finals appearance in as many seasons – a mark unseen in half a century.
Loving life as a player, LeBron copped to what we’d all already presumed on Sunday. The guy absolutely does not see himself as NBA head coaching material once his fabled playing career ends.
From the Cavaliers’ website, via The Score’s Chris Walder:
“No. No, no. I don’t have the patience,” he said hours prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ road game against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night. “I can’t even coach my own son’s team, so I know I couldn’t coach some guys that I don’t know. Can’t do it.”
He probably couldn’t coach guys that he does know. That’s just how it runs for most all-world playing talents. More on that later.
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You might recall that, earlier in the 2016-17 season, rookie Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale put his presumptions about LeBron’s potential coaching career on record. Fizdale, who was an assistant in Miami during James’ 2010-2014 run with the two-time Finals winner, articulated exactly why, exactly, the realm of coaching is for those that can see the forest for the trees, and all that.
From Joe Vardon at Cleveland.com:
“He would kill somebody,” said David Fizdale, coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. “Perfection is like (his standard). He wants perfection. I could see him actually owning his own team and doing something like that, but I think he would end up killing a player at some point because they wouldn’t live up to the expectations that he would set forth.”
(Remember, this was from mid-December, so the Cavaliers and James can’t use this quote as Michael Jordan-styled motivation for some later blowout. Fizdale actually shared his thoughts in the hours between a two-day, back-to-back pairing with the Cavaliers, one that saw James sit the second half of the series to rest following a 23-point, eight-rebound, six-assist game in the win in the first game. Memphis took the second contest with LBJ sitting.)
“I think he coached me more than I coached him,” Fizdale said. “You’re talking about a one-percentile guy when it comes to basketball intelligence. I think I learned more from him than he learned from me and he just sees the game very clear. It’s really in slow motion.
Fizdale recalled James’ work ethic as “second to none.” He remembers James through cliches that have stuck throughout James’ 14 pro seasons, about being the first to arrive and the last to leave.
“His total investment was like a 9 to 5,” Fizdale said. “Most athletes don’t approach it that way. He did. And he really took pride in what he ate, how hard he worked with his body, how he maintained, the way lifted, everything — the way he watched film.”
James did fantastic work in Miami with the crew that featured Fizdale, long assumed one of the league’s next great head coaches in-waiting prior to his ascension to the Grizzlies’ gig in 2016.
Just prior to Fizdale’s discussion, James was quick to send plaudits Fizdale’s way:
“My guy (David Fizdale), their coach is doing an unbelievable job and I’m happy for him.”
Moving deeper, though, one can probably find what James sees lacking in himself in his description of what makes Fizdale, who has the Grizzlies swimming along at 24-16, so great:
“He has every quality that would fit a head coach,” James continued. “He’s confident in his ability. A great learner. Great communicator. He can communicate to some of the players both on the floor and off the floor. So it was great to see him get the nod and he’s proven so far why he’s capable of the job.”
James is hardly the type to take his own limousine home. He relates to his co-workers, as a superstar, in ways unseen since the days of Magic Johnson. Tim Duncan also created a warming culture on and off the court for his teammates and staff in San Antonio, but Duncan couldn’t stop traffic like LeBron and Magic or even as stiffly as Shaquille O’Neal, who despite some severe issues with coaching and front offices in his 19-year career remained a mostly beloved teammate.
The same can’t be said for Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Kobe Bryant. Teammates would cut off years of their career in order to play alongside him, but outside of a few high-stakes bourre games in the back of Chicago’s team plane during Jordan’s last few years with the Bulls, that triptych came in and went out of the NBA without a whole lot of buddy-buddy snapshots to hand those outside of their circle.
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Despite all the Banana Boat fun, LeBron James more or less copped to his existence as a Basketball Dork above all sometime around the first anniversary of the ill-fated Decision in 2010. After trying to pose as above the fray during his first year with Miami, black uniform and all, James later sort of settled in to the idea that, luckily, the brilliance and opportunity that was foisted upon him at an early age also tends to walk hand-in-hand with a sense of wonder that manifests itself in both curiosity and commitment.
As was the case with Magic, Bird, Jordan, Kobe and Duncan, that knowledge led to greater things on the court. For further proof, check where LeBron James’ eyes started dotting during the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, and the scorched earth that has resulted in the nearly five years since.
This obsession, however, wouldn’t make him a great or even good coach. Even if he has more to teach than anyone else.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. Bob Cousy was unsuccessful as a coach due to failings that thankfully eluded (Hall of Fame, but a shuttle ride or two below Cousy’s star) teammates Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn. Bill Russell was successful but for a fleeting moment in Boston prior to a 1980s flameout in Sacramento, while his Celtic successor Dave Cowens had the damndest time trying to turn his MVP-career as a player into something consistent as a coach – butting heads throughout his time in Charlotte and Golden State.
Magic Johnson’s (exactly) one-month coaching career felt like something out of a bad sports movie that Kevin Costner would have something to do with, right down the ringing cell phone and the presence of knucklehead youth ruining the day. Michael Jordan, at least publicly, never considered the coaching option, and Larry Bird only did fine work as Indiana’s head coach while letting the brilliant minds of Rick Carlisle and the late Dick Harter run the show on opposing sides of the ball.
Mindful of his own luck, and how it was about to run out, Bird walked away from the Pacers just before a mini-rebuilding project after three years. He returned to the team a few summers later, but has yet to come up as a coaching candidate in spite of the Pacers working through five different head coaches since Bird’s return to the franchise in 2003.
It isn’t as if LeBron James would work terribly as a head coach because he’d be fielding Facetime requests from Amy Schumer and shoe company executives in equal bouts while attempting to free himself for that morning’s shootaround prior to the game against Memphis.
The problem with James is that he’s too mindful, at age 32 at least. He can’t be satisfied with clicking on the cruise control at 73 miles an hour in a 65 for the sixth-month haul that is the regular season. He’s either figuratively weaving in and out of traffic at 100 miles per hour on his way to the stadium (not unlike MJ and Kobe, in real life driving frightfests), or in the backseat with the headphones on while someone else drives.
The latter is much safer, for all involved.
Of course, it’s early. If James can change course so profoundly (if not with ease) mid-playing career, perhaps he does have what it takes to turn into the NBA’s first lasting superstar-turned-coach. Perhaps, failing the accepted grasping of the tag of the NBA’s Greatest of All Time, he’ll make up for the coin-flip vote between himself and Michael Jordan by making a Finals or seven with clipboard in hand.
Or, perhaps, he’ll slum in other professional aspects, leaving the silly sports game where it is and making his mark elsewhere. Such is his potential, and such are his capabilities after providing himself (via that hard work that David Fizdale spoke of) with as great a post-playing starting point as any individual athlete in professional sports history.
For now, though, he’s just happy to let Tyronn Lue handle the interstate.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
