{"id":28089,"date":"2016-01-28T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/lebron-says-criticism-he-undermines-coaches-is-unfair\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T09:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:00:51","slug":"lebron-says-criticism-he-undermines-coaches-is-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/lebron-says-criticism-he-undermines-coaches-is-unfair\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron says criticism he undermines coaches is unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio<\/strong> \u2014 LeBron James disdains the notion he\u2019s a coach killer.<\/p>\n

Widely criticized in basketball circles for a perception that he pushed for Cleveland\u2019s front office to fire David Blatt last week, James said the criticism that he undercuts coaches is unfair.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what can I do about it?\u201d he said following shootaround on Wednesday as the Cavs prepared to play the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never, in my time since I picked up a basketball, ever undermined a coach, ever disrespected a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cYou ask any of my little league coaches, my high school coaches, coaches I\u2019ve played for in tournaments, camps, my NBA coaches, I\u2019ve always respected what they wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blatt was fired Friday midway through his second season despite having them atop the Eastern Conference standings and leading the team to the NBA Finals last season.<\/p>\n

Blatt\u2019s dismissal \u2014 he\u2019s the third coach fired on a team James has played on \u2014 led to some condemnation of the four-time league MVP. On Tuesday, a limited partner with the Heat said during an interview on Israeli radio that James tried to get Erik Spoelstra fired in Miami. Ranaan Katz later retracted his statement to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Blatt was replaced by Tyronn Lue, his top assistant and a former NBA player who has known James since he was a 17-year-old high school phenom.<\/p>\n

For many, Lue\u2019s ascension was the result of James not wanting Blatt around. There was an obvious disconnect between James and Cleveland\u2019s former coach, who was wildly successful in Europe and hired by Cleveland before James decided to return to the Cavaliers as a free agent in 2014.<\/p>\n

The James-Blatt relationship was scrutinized during both seasons and when it finally collapsed, the LeBron-got-him-fired narrative gained traction.<\/p>\n

Although James insists that he didn\u2019t do anything to weaken Blatt\u2019s authority, there were several incidents over the past 18 months that illustrate how he didn\u2019t do his former coach any favors. James usually referred to Blatt simply as \u201cBlatt\u201d and often ignored Blatt during games, preferring to discuss strategy with Lue during timeouts. James also famously changed a play designed by Blatt during the playoffs last season before hitting a game-winning jumper to beat Chicago.<\/p>\n

James said his willingness to speak his mind has led to the criticism that he\u2019s not always on the same page with his coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the owner of a team, I\u2019m not the GM of a team, I\u2019m the player of a team,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople get it so misconstrued because I\u2019m a smart basketball player and I\u2019ve voiced my opinion about certain things, which I did when I was here my first stint with Paul Silas and Mike Brown. Which I did in Miami with Coach Spo. Which I did with Blatt and I\u2019ll do with T. Lue,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd at the end of the day, they\u2019ll still have their final call. But, I don\u2019t know. What do you guys want me to do, turn my brain off because I have a huge basketball IQ? If that\u2019s what they want me to do, I\u2019m not going to do it because I\u2019ve got so much to give to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no difference for me telling my teammates or telling guys how to get better with their game. If I feel I got something that will help our team, ultimately, I like to give it. It helped me get two titles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s James\u2019 words or actions, everything about him is scrutinized. That\u2019s the price of being one of the planet\u2019s most popular athletes.<\/p>\n

Still, James has been bothered by some of the recent vitriol directed at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to throw my name in the dirt for no particular reason, because of speculation or whatever the case may be,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t worry about it too much. I got 14 guys here. I got a fan base here and a fan base all over the world that loves what I do and they respect what I do and I can\u2019t worry about a select group of people that want to use their negative energy to take away my positive energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio \u2014 LeBron James disdains the notion he\u2019s a coach killer. Widely criticized in basketball circles for a perception that he pushed for Cleveland\u2019s front office to fire David Blatt last week, James said the criticism that he undercuts coaches is unfair. \u201cBut what can I do about it?\u201d he said following shootaround on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28089"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}