Unless the Los Angeles Lakers can woo Tyronn Lue away from the Clippers, LeBron James will be returning next season under his tenth NBA head coach as the team has parted ways with Darvin Ham. Ham becomes the third Lakers head coach to be blamed and canned for the team not meeting the expectations that come with having two All-NBA players in James and Anthony Davis.
LeBron has been quite the Grim Reaper to NBA head coaches. His first coach former Boston Celtic Paul Silas, lasted less than two years. His replacement, Brendan Malone, wasn't retained, and the Cavs hired Mike Brown, who then was let go as part of an attempt to retain LeBron in 2010.
LeBron of course made the "decision" to take his talents to South Beach where he played for Erik Spoelstra, who seems to be the only NBA head coach with job security. LeBron was rumored to not like how the Heat wouldn't let him do things his way and returned to Cleveland. Blatt led the Cavs to the #1 seed in the East and to the NBA Finals in his first season. Then during his second season, Cleveland's winning percentage was even better under Blatt (.732), yet he was fired halfway though the season despite a 30-11 record.
LeBron left for Los Angeles in 2018, but after he failed to even make the playoffs they canned their promising young coach (at the time) Luke Walton and hired Frank Vogel. Vogel would win a championship in his first season with L.A. after Anthony Davis forced a trade there and the Lakers won the Mickey Mouse Bubble title. The next two seasons ended early for the Lakers and so ended the tenure of Vogel, about a year and a half after winning them a title.
Davin Ham took over last season and led the Lakers surprisingly to the Western Conference Finals in his first season as a head coach, but after L.A. got bounced again by Denver this week, Ham got his walking papers.
Every coach that LeBron has played for has either been fired or James has left them (and in the case of Brown, both) for a new team. LeBron's relationships with his head coaches have been a stark contrast to Michael Jordan's. Jordan went to bat for Phil Jackson and famously threatened to retire if the Bulls didn't retain him. The Bulls reluctantly did for one more season and the team won their 6th title. Then when Jackson was out, MJ was a man of his word and retired before playing for another coach.
Jordan would go on to become part owner and general manager for the Washington Wizards and hired his prior coach Doug Collins. When Jordan decided to return to play again in the NBA for the Wizards, he was able to remain true to his statement and didn't play for a new coach, but played for Collins. The Los Angeles Lakers, who didn't claim the Minneapolis five titles from the early 1950's until some fifty years later when they started getting closer to the Celtics, currently stand at 17 total titles (in their minds). 5 for Minneapolis and 12 for Los Angeles. The Boston Celtics who defeated Miami 4-1 in their first round series are attempting to win their 18th this June. All in Boston.
More must-reads: