Ty Lue Reveals LeBron James Called After Lakers’ Low-Ball Coaching Offer

Ricardo Sandoval | Dec 9, 2024

Nov 1, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) embraces head coach Tyronn Lue of the LA Clippers after the Lakers won during overtime at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images / Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers have gone through four head coaches in the LeBron James era. 

James arrived in the summer of 2018, and the Lakers have hired three head coaches since he has been in Southern California. 

The Lakers have shuffled through many coaches before, but it was clear that some stability needed to take place for James to have a proper home in L.A. 

It was crucial for the Lakers to get the head coach right after they fired Luke Walton after the 2018-19 season. The head coaching market was hot that summer, but the clear-cut favorite was Tyronn Lue, the former head coach of James and former Lakers guard.

Lue was viewed as the favorite to secure the Lakers job, and with James in the team, it was portrayed as a slam dunk hire.

However, talks were flawed, and there were disagreements on both sides. The Lakers had reportedly lowballed Lue. 

Years after that incident, it appears to still haunt the Lakers in some way, shape, or form. Lue revealed that James personally called him after the Lakers sent a low-ball coaching offer. 

"He [James] did, and he called me twice. He called me, 'What do I have to do? I said, 'No, I want them to respect me," Lue said. "I don't want to have to go to you to get my deal done; if they don't respect me like I should be respected, then it's okay. He wasn't pissed off; he wasn't mad about it, but he and Rich Paul both stepped in and said, 'What are we going to do to get it done?' I didn't like the way it was handled."

James had won a championship with Lue at the helm with the Cleveland Cavaliers. James has a special connection with Lue, and he does to this day. 

It was reported that the Lakers' offer was between three years and $18 million, after which Lue's side pulled out of negotiations.

Lue said the deal was a step backward for a coach who had already proven his worth on the game's biggest stage.

"I don't think they had the same respect for me as I felt they should. They offered me the job on a three-year basis, and they wanted to pick my coaching style, and I wasn't going to do that, and more so for me to be a championship coach, to take a three-year deal when everyone else is getting five-year deals and more money, and then you want to pick my staff as well, I just thought that was a slap in the face, and as a young Black head coach, I just thought it was a bad example I was steering for other guys coming up after me," Lue said.

The Lakers went on to hire Frank Vogel in 2019 but fired him three years later after leading them to a title in his first year at the helm. 

It worked out for both sides, as Lue went on to take the Clippers' head coach job before the 2020-21 season. Nonetheless, who knows how the Lakers would've been if Lue had been a head coach all these years instead of shuffling through three head coaches? 

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