Throughout his 21 seasons in the NBA, LeBron James has accomplished plenty of things, scored a lot of points and played for quite a few head coaches. He's even played against three of the coaches that have led his team.
The list of coaches is still growing. Following his 21st season, which ended with a first-round exit at the hands of the Nuggets, the Lakers parted ways with Darvin Ham. Ham, the third coach of James' tenure in Los Angeles and the ninth of his career, led the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals in 2023 and found himself on the hot seat months later.
With the Lakers moving on from Ham, here's a look back at the history of James' coaches in the NBA from Year 1 to Year 21.
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How many head coaches has LeBron James played for?
Since beginning his career with Cleveland in 2003, James has played for nine different head coaches.
Paul Silas, James' first coach, is one of three of his coaches to be fired in-season. James played for two coaches (Mike Brown and Erik Spoelstra) for a combined nine seasons.
Here is each coach James has played for in his career:
- Paul Silas (2003-05)
- Brendan Malone (2005)*
- Mike Brown (2005-10)
- Erik Spoelstra (2010-14)
- David Blatt (2014-16)
- Tyronn Lue (2016-18)
- Luke Walton (2018-19)
- Frank Vogel (2019-22)
- Darvin Ham (2022-24)
*Malone was hired on an interim basis
LeBron James head coach timeline
Paul Silas (2003-05)
James' first NBA head coach was Silas, who joined the Cavs after spending the previous five seasons leading the Charlotte and New Orleans Hornets. Silas, a three-time champion as a player, was tabbed to help ease James' transition to the league.
In Year 1, James was named Rookie of the Year with averages of 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, but the Cavs fell one win shy of the East's final playoff spot with a 35-47 record.
Silas was relieved of his duties 64 games into his second season at the helm after Cleveland dropped nine of 12 games to fall to 34-30 on the season.
Brendan Malone (2005)
Malone, the father of Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, stepped in on an interim basis following the firing of Silas. He led Cleveland to an 8-10 record over the final 18 games of the season and at 42-40, the Cavaliers missed the 2005 NBA Playoffs by a tiebreaker.
Mike Brown (2005-10)
Cleveland hired Brown in the 2005 offseason and the then-35-year-old became the second youngest head coach in the league.
In Year 1, Brown helped lead the Cavaliers to a 50-32 record, good for the franchise's first playoff berth since 1998 as the East's fourth seed, eliminating Washington in six games before losing a decisive Game 7 to Detroit in the East Semifinals.
In Brown's second season at the helm, James and the Cavaliers made an improbable run to the NBA Finals after winning 50 games and earning the East's second seed.
The Cavs took a step back in Year 3, winning 45 games and losing in the East Semifinals before Brown led the team to back-to-back 60-win seasons in 2008-09 (66) and 2009-10 (61). James was named MVP in each season but Cleveland failed to return to the Finals, losing in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009 and in the East Semifinals in 2010.
Ahead of James' impending free agency in 2010, the Cavaliers parted ways with Brown in an attempt to revamp the situation and retain James.
Erik Spoelstra (2010-14)
With James' free agency decision to join the Heat in 2010 came the decision to play under Spoelstra, a descendant of the Pat Riley lineage who famously began his time with the Heat as a video coordinator.
At the time, Spoelstra was largely unknown and entering his third year as an NBA coach. Despite the ups and downs in Year 1, Miami won 58 games and advanced to the NBA Finals, where it fell to Dallas in six games.
In Years 2 and 3, the relationship between James and Spoelstra grew as Miami posted a combined regular season record of 112-36, won back-to-back championships (the first two of James' career), and James was named league MVP for the third and fourth time in his career.
While they made a fourth consecutive Finals appearance in 2014, the Heat's three-peat bid fell short and free agency again loomed for James.
David Blatt (2014-16)
In 2014, James returned home to Cleveland to play for a first-year NBA head coach in Blatt. Prior to joining the Cavaliers, Blatt had spent the previous four seasons leading perennial EuroLeague power Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Under Blatt, Cleveland was successful but there was evident dysfunction. In Year 1, Blatt led the Cavs to a 53-29 record and the team came within two wins of the 2015 NBA title before falling short to the upstart Warriors.
Blatt was relieved of his duties midway through the 2015-16 season even though Cleveland had the East's best record at 30-11. David Griffin, who was Cleveland's general manager at the time, credited the decision to "a lack of fit with our personnel and our vision."
Tyronn Lue (2016-18)
In a somewhat unprecedented move, Lue was not given an interim tag when taking over midseason but instead given a deal that ran through at least the 2016-17 season with a team option for 2017-18.
The move paid dividends as Cleveland maintained the East's top seed and won its first 10 playoff games before being pushed to six by Toronto in the East Finals. In the 2016 NBA Finals, Lue and the Cavs made history by becoming the first NBA team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA championship, defeating the 73-win Warriors.
Lue and James' partnership resulted in two more trips to the Finals, including an improbable run in 2018 as the East's No. 4 seed in which the Cavs needed seven games in the opening round and East Finals.
James left as a free agent in 2018, thus ending his time with Lue as his head coach.
Luke Walton (2018-19)
As James joined the Lakers as a free agent, he signed on to play for his draft classmate in Walton, who was selected 32nd overall in the 2003 NBA Draft.
However short, the relationship with former peers certainly had its highs and lows. After a Christmas Day win over the defending champion Warriors, the Lakers advanced to 20-14 on the season but James suffered a serious groin injury in the process.
With James in and out of the lineup for the remainder of the season, he missed the playoffs for the first time since 2004-05 as LA sputtered to a 37-45 record. After team president Magic Johnson's viral announcement of his resignation on the final day of the season, Walton and the Lakers mutually agreed to part ways three days later.
Frank Vogel (2019-22)
In 2019, the Lakers pivoted to Vogel, a veteran head coach who brought with him seven years of head coaching experience from his time with the Pacers and Magic.
Vogel inherited a Lakers team that also retooled in the summer after making a big splash to acquire Anthony Davis. With James and Davis leading the way on the floor, Vogel handled matters on the sideline as LA established itself as the class of the Western Conference with a 49-14 record before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the league to shut down.
The peak of Vogel's time leading the Lakers came as he led the team to the 2020 NBA title during the NBA restart. With a short offseason, the Lakers hobbled their way through the 2020-21 season, advancing to the playoffs as a Play-In Tournament team before losing to the Suns in the opening round.
Vogel's final season in LA was another injury-impacted one as the Lakers hobbled to a 33-49 record to miss the playoffs altogether. Of the decision, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said, "We just felt organizationally, at the highest level, it was time for a new voice."
Darvin Ham (2022-24)
Nearly two months after announcing that it had parted ways with Vogel, Los Angeles announced that it would hire Ham as the 24th head coach in franchise history.
Ham, who was a lead assistant on Mike Budenholzer's staff in Milwaukee, came to LA just one year removed from winning an NBA title. It was a homecoming of sorts as Ham's first NBA coaching gig was as an assistant with the Lakers in 2011.
"Our players and fans will immediately identify with Darvin’s no-nonsense and hard-working approach, which we feel will bring toughness and a competitive edge to all we do," Pelinka said of hiring Ham.
In his first season, Ham and the Lakers stumbled to a 2-10 start before turning things around to finish with a 43-39 record and the West's No. 7 seed. After defeating the Timberwolves in the Play-In Tournament, LA made an unprecedented run to the Western Conference Finals before getting swept by eventual champion Denver.
Ham's job security came into question after reports of him losing the locker room due to his experimentation with lineups and rotations. After a first-round exit at the hands of the Nuggets, the Lakers dismissed Ham.
