National Basketball Association

LeBron James, player-coach? Byron Scott says Lakers should try it

Published May. 8, 2024 4:01 p.m. ET

After losing another postseason series short of the NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Lakers begin their offseason in search of another head coach. Their dismissal of Darvin Ham last week means they will be led by a seventh head coach since Phil Jackson retired following the 2010-11 season.

A member of the post-Jackson pack believes the best candidate to replace Ham is already in the building. He's also on the team.

On Wednesday's edition of "Undisputed," Byron Scott asserted that LeBron James should coach the Lakers next season.

"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 in this organization from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint," Scott said. "As far as I'm concerned, the only person that he's going to really trust is himself, and since you're making a lot of these decisions anyway, why not put him in that seat?"

Tim Hardaway Sr. expressed a similar sentiment on Monday's edition of "The Carton Show."

"Why don't you just make LeBron player-coach like they did Bill Russell because that's what he's doing anyway," Hardaway said. "And if you're just going to hire JJ Redick, that's what's going to happen. LeBron is going to run everything, going to run practice, going to run games; he's just going to run everything."

According to FOX Sports Research, there have been 40 player-coaches since the NBA was founded in 1946. But only one has come after the 1976 NBA-ABA merger: Dave Cowens with the Celtics in 1978-79.

The idea of James being the next has not gained any traction nationally, at least not yet.

Could LeBron be Lakers next HC? Byron Scott makes bold prediction

Former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer is the current favorite for the job (+195), while current LA Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, who coached James with the Cleveland Cavaliers when they won the 2016 NBA Finals, Redick, the former NBA player and current ESPN color commentator who currently hosts a podcast with James, and Boston Celtics assistant Charles Lee have also been linked to the Lakers' vacancy.

The 17-time champs are coming off a 47-35 campaign that saw them claim the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference before losing a five-game series in the first round to the Nuggets, who swept the Lakers in last year's Western Conference finals.

Ham, a first-time head coach, was at the helm for both seasons. Scott pointed to the brief tenures of Ham and his immediate predecessor, Frank Vogel, who was dismissed two years after winning a title, as reason to fully hand over the reins to the 39-year-old James.

"What are you looking for? What do you need as a head coach to get this team to the next level?" Scott said. "You got two of the best players in the NBA … at the end of the day, to me, I'm looking at it [like], ‘just make LeBron the coach.'"

Can LeBron coach the Lakers?

On Wednesday's edition of "The Herd," FOX Sports NBA Analyst Ric Bucher opined that Scott was speaking to a larger point about James.

"I think Byron is speaking for all the coaches that have been fired to say, ‘If you’re going to dictate when you go in and out of the game and how many minutes you play and how we're going to run our offense, why don't you just go ahead [and coach the team]?" Bucher said.

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