After just two seasons, leading a 90-74 record, the Los Angeles Lakers have squeezed Darvin Ham out of their head coaching position. Now, the search is on to make their eighth head coaching hire in the last 13 years.
As you can imagine, the Lakers are casting a wide net, and there are several candidates who appear to be worthy candidates. But former Laker Byron Scott had an outside-the-box idea on who should become Los Angeles’ next coach.
Byron Scott thinks LeBron James should coach the Los Angeles Lakers
Recently, Scott suggested that the Lakers should just go ahead and make LeBron James the next coach, where he’d operate in dual roles as a player and coach.
“My recommendation [for] the next Lakers coach, and out of the eight or nine names that I’ve heard, his name wasn’t on there, is make LeBron [James] the [head] coach. Make him the coach. Listen, 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, alright, sit on the bench and make those decisions as well as be head coach.”
Byron Scott on LeBron James becoming next Los Angeles Lakers coach
People love to joke about how LeBron is a ‘coach killer’ and how the Lakers should just give him GM and/or coaching duties. But here’s a player who actually believes it’s what the Lakers should do.
Others have tossed another former player’s name into the fray, bringing up J.J. Redick for the Lakers’ vacancy, but Scott can’t help but laugh at that idea too.
“Out of the names…you have to find someone who LeBron is comfortable with from a head coaching standpoint. The last name I heard was JJ Redick and I started laughing. Well now they got a podcast together, so y’all [are] comfortable [and] y’all are buddy buddy so now his name is on the list?”
“As far as I’m concerned, the only person that he’s going to really trust is himself.”
Scott, continued
While Scott may think hiring LeBron James to coach the Lakers is a reasonable option, Los Angeles isn’t going to do that.