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There are plenty of basketball fans who are convinced there’s some friction between LeBron James and Darvin Ham, and the legendary veteran decided to chime in after he was accused of purposefully showing up the Lakers head coach during a recent game.
There are obviously plenty of perks that come with coaching one of the greatest NBA players of all time, and Darvin Ham has had the chance to do exactly that since he was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers to replace Frank Vogel prior to the start of the 2022-23 campaign.
There aren’t many people out there who come close to matching the amount of basketball knowledge LeBron James has amassed over the course of a career that’s currently in its 21st season, so while Ham has plenty of coaching (and playing) experience under his belt, he runs the risk of butting heads with his best player if they don’t see eye-to-eye.
The Lakers have been the textbook definition of average so far this season, and many fans have grown increasingly frustrated with Ham based on his team’s performance.
Plenty of those detractors are also convinced there’s a growing rift between LeBron and the head coach, and James managed to cause a bit of a stir during a recent game against the Trail Blazers where he appeared to go rogue by committing an intentional foul before calling a timeout to sub himself out toward the end of the contest.
LeBron took a foul to take himself out and then called a timeout because Darvin Ham wouldn't do it himself, can't make it up lol pic.twitter.com/kx3lbKrb9U
— LakeShow Highlights (@LSH_lakeshow) January 22, 2024
That clip went viral courtesy of people who were operating under the assumption James felt the need to take matters into his own hands because he didn’t have faith in Ham’s coaching ability.
However, LeBron disputed that narrative by hopping into the comments of an Instagram post featuring the video in question while saying he was simply doing what Ham had told him to when he was shooting free throws prior to the play in question.
That should settle that, but something tells me it’s only a matter of time until people read way too far into something else while arguing it’s proof LeBron and Ham are secretly mortal enemies with an undying blood feud that’s quietly tearing the Lakers apart from the inside.