A controversial and outspoken basketball commentator has accused LeBron James of personally selecting the next Los Angeles Lakers‘ head coach as the organization continues to close in on their target.
The Californians, who were eliminated in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, seem set to appoint JJ Redick after the front office decided to part ways with Darvin Ham.
LeBron James has moment of jealousy with wife Savannah James during live podcast
Whilst James isn’t an executive for the 2020 NBA champions, he does hold influence within the dressing room, franchise and wider sport so this led to Skip Bayless accusing the 39-year-old of wielding that influence to ensure the Lakers go after Redick.
“I know that Rich Paul (LeBron James’ agent) keeps saying that LeBron has nothing to do with any of this process,” Bayless said on Undisputed. “I’m sorry, his fingerprints are all over JJ [Redick]. There’s no way JJ is even a candidate for this job if LeBron didn’t bless him to start with.
“And then it’s like, ‘Well you go ahead and make the choice.'”
Bayless added: “I just don’t know. I said it before, this feels disastrous for JJ. There’s some scorpions in that front office too It’s not a long walk in the park there.”
The Lakers have not won an NBA championship since their 2020 triumph in the quarantine season, and they have not managed to make an appearance in the NBA Finals since then either as they continue to fail to utilize Anthony Davis and James‘ collective talent.
It means that James, who currently holds a player-option for the upcoming 2024/25 season, could leave elsewhere leaving fans and commentators wondering if there is an attempt by the power forward to make the Lakers adhere to his wishes to make him stay.
Why would the Lakers pick Redick?
Redick is perhaps a curveball, but it seems certain that he will inherit the joint-most successful franchise in all of the NBA with very limited coaching experiences since he only retired from the Dallas Mavericks back in 2021.
Yet he’s had the chance to soft-launch his credentials for the job through his punditry career across Yahoo! Sports, The Ringer, ESPN and First Take, whilst he also operates a podcast along with James. It’s the latter that leads Bayless to believe James is out to support his friend.
“He is really good at talking basketball,” Bayless said of Redick. “Because they talk basketball at a very deep, high level on their podcast.
“And I’m sure Bron has been extremely impressed with his knowledge, and I think it’s very difficult to impress LeBron James with your basketball knowledge.”
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