Los Angeles Lakers executives felt there were significant issues with the team under Darvin Ham this season, which is why the head coach was fired earlier this week. For LeBron James, one of those issues apparently occurred very early in the year.
Obviously, LeBron’s relationship with Ham did not sour because the coach wanted to give his best player more rest. It may not have soured at all, in fact, though Shelburne also noted that James, Anthony Davis and other players “barely bothered to conceal criticisms” of Ham’s X’s and O’s strategies both publicly and privately throughout the season.
The most animated we saw LeBron vent his frustrations toward Ham was in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets. James felt Ham should have challenged a call and went ballistic when the coach chose not to
Considering the roster shortcomings in L.A., the results under Ham were not all that bad. Had LeBron and others fought for him to stay, Ham almost certainly would have kept his job.