LeBron James is arguably the best basketball player of all time. He's a great teammate, a savant on the court and savvy in his off-court business dealings. That doesn't mean he's perfect, though. Much like Michael Jordan, he's had a bad track record when it comes to influencing personnel moves.
That should be a giant red flag for the Lakers, who have gone down this road many times before during LeBron's six seasons with the team. They have already made one of their two big decisions in June, choosing JJ Redick to be their next head coach. They will also need to decide if they will select Bronny with either the 17th or 55th picks in the draft.
James' agent Rich Paul has insisted that his star client hasn't influenced the hire and never backed Redick as his preferred candidate. That doesn't pass the sniff test.
Former Laker Carmelo Anthony once called James the GM of the team, as did Kyrie Irving. Agents have grumbled that players can't get signed to the team without his approval. His former Cavs GM David Griffin once said that "you're not doing your job if you don't talk to him about players."
Every star has some level of influence on front office decisions, and James is certainly included in that group. But if Rob Pelinka is giving him an oversized role in the decisions, then he's failing in his duty as a steward of the team. Redick may end up being a great coach for the team, and Bronny could be a nice role player. Those would be rare wins on a very spotty LeGM resume.
LAKERS HIRE JJ REDICK
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LeBron James' poor track record as LeGM
The Lakers should learn from their past mistakes. Instead, it looks like history is doomed to repeat itself.
Listening to James on personnel decisions has taken the team from a championship roster in 2020 to where they are today. It was he who reportedly wanted the Lakers to trade for Russell Westbrook in 2021 instead of Buddy Hield. Westbrook's Lakers tenure was predictably disastrous. The spacing between the team's three stars was terrible, and James later complained about a lack of shooting on the roster that was mostly his doing.
MORE: Why LeBron James deserves blame as 'Lakers GM' for Russell Westbrook trade
Hield would have provided that shooting had the Lakers gone with their gut. He's been one of the highest-volume 3-point shooters in the league and hit 40 percent of his 3s. More importantly, the Lakers would not have needed to trade Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a first-round pick in order to get him. The asking price for Hield was reportedly Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell.
James would have compounded that Westbrook error even further if the Lakers had listened to him again. He was reportedly upset that the team didn't try to pivot off Westbrook and trade their 2027 first-round pick in order to acquire a clearly declining John Wall during the 2022 trade deadline.
That would have ended even worse than his Westbrook deal. Wall played only 34 games after that date and was quickly out of the league. Instead of pulling the trigger on Wall, the Lakers were able to somewhat salvage that situation, picking up D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley down the line and getting the depth pieces necessary to make a Western Conference Finals run.
James also has not been a particularly good evaluator of coaches. He once tried to get Erik Spoelstra fired in Miami. It's not easy coaching one of his teams — Redick will be the 10th head coach of his career.
MORE: Is JJ Redick the right person for Lakers head coaching job?
Redick could be in an awkward situation because of his pre-existing relationship with James, according to a long-time veteran and former teammate of the Lakers star, Udonis Haslem.
“If it’s JJ [Redick], it's going to be a cynical locker room,” Haslem said on ESPN's NBA Today show. “You’re gonna see guys that are gonna say, ‘Is coach gonna do a podcast after the game with LeBron?’ You gonna have a cynical locker room of guys that are gonna side-eye everything JJ says ’cause they’re gonna wonder, ‘Is it JJ’s message, or LeBron’s message?’”
The Lakers could further complicate matters by selecting Bronny James later this month in the draft. With apologies to Luis Scola, Patty Mills and Aaron Wiggins, the 55th pick hasn't typically produced rotation players. Using that pick on Bronny would be reasonable. But if the team trades for him or uses their No. 17 pick on him, then it would be nothing short of a disaster.
Standing up to James isn't an easy task, but Pelinka and company get paid a lot of money to do that. They need to do their jobs, or the team needs to find someone else that will.
Just don't ask LeBron for that next recommendation.
