Former Lakers coach and player Byron Scott thinks LeBron James should do two jobs and be a player-coach for the Purple & Gold.
On the May 8 episode of “Undisputed” on FS1, Scott explained why the Lakers would benefit from asking James to coach the team.
“My suggestion for the next Lakers coach — out of the eight or nine names I’ve heard — they didn't include his name. Make LeBron the coach,” said Scott, who won three championships with the Lakers in the Showtime Era of the 1980s.
“Listen, I’ve got nothing but love and respect for LeBron, he’s one of the greatest players to ever play this game,” Scott continued. “But it’s clear to me that he’s making a lot of decisions in this organization — from a coaching standpoint and player standpoint. So if you’re going to let him make those decisions, sit on the bench and make those decisions as well. Be the head coach. Go back to the Bill Russell days.”
Who Should Be the Next Lakers Coach?
Scott — who coached the Lakers for two seasons between 2014 and 2016 — laughed at the idea of a rookie such as JJ Redick ascending to the role of the Lakers head coach, particularly because of the expectations for a person in that position.
“You obviously have to get somebody that LeBron is comfortable with,” Scott emphasized. “The last name I heard was JJ Redick, and I started laughing. Now, they have a podcast together… they're close friends, so his name is on the list? As far as I’m concerned, the only person he’s going to trust is himself.”
While responding to the radical idea, former Super Bowl Champion James Jones agreed that Scott could be onto something. Jones believes that James must take accountability for getting coaches fired by taking on the role himself.
“When I look at LeBron James, he’s got coaches fired that won championships with him [Frank Vogel], he’s got coaches fired that took him to Western Conference Finals [Darvin Ham], he’s got coaches fired that took him to first-round exits… I think Byron Scott is talking like me,” Jones said on the May 8 episode of “Speak” on FS1. “He’s salty. Because you [James] done got all these coaches fired… You coach!”
Will LeBron James Even Remain a Laker?
As of this writing, there’s no guarantee that “The King” will even remain in Los Angeles for the 2025-25 season given his upcoming free agency.
On the April 8 episode of “Get Up” on ESPN, Brian Windhorst reported that James will take a wait-and-see approach before signing with the Lakers.
“I think he wants to see what the Lakers do around the draft,” Windhorst said. “They have potentially three first-round picks they can trade, a couple of contracts they can package with it to upgrade the team. You remember that they did not make any significant upgrades to this team at the trade deadline. LeBron did not forget that and I do think he likes to have that pressure on them.”
Warriors star Draymond Green also thinks James isn’t guaranteed to wear a Lakers jersey in the 2025-25 season.
“Some people think it’s a foregone conclusion that ‘Bron is going back to the Lakers. I don’t know if it’s a foregone conclusion. I think if there was something that came about that was interesting, I think he’d look at it,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show” on May 2. ”
While most people expect James to sign again with the Lakers, unexpected things have happened in the NBA — and the possibility of the famous forward changing teams should not be dismissed. According to oddsmakers, the Cavaliers, Knicks, and Heat all have a decent chance to acquire James either through a trade or in free agency.
