Stephen A. Smith went off on LeBron James’ role in the firing of his previous head coaches and blamed that for his limited title success.

Stephen A. Smith is not happy about the Lakers’ decision to fire Darvin Ham after their 2024 first-round exit. The ESPN analyst went off on LeBron James in particular, blaming the constant carousel of coaches in his career as the reason why he’s won only four NBA titles instead of six like Michael Jordan.

“There’s no way Darvin Ham is gone if Anthony Davis and LeBron James want him to stay… If Anthony Davis and LeBron James hadn’t spoken against him, and LeBron spoke for him, all of those things come along with critiquing one’s GOAT status because the acrimony, the friction, the divide, the fragmentation, all of those things play a role in one’s greatness or lack thereof. Maybe that’s the reason LeBron has four rings instead of six.”

LeBron’s history with coaches is incredibly complicated, as it’s clear he has always struggled to trust the coaches in charge of his teams. The only coach he unilaterally trusted from day one seemed to be Tyronn Lue, who got his job with the Cavaliers in 2016 after James pushed David Blatt out the door. The results of that move can’t be questioned, as Lue oversaw the Cavaliers’ 3-1 comeback in the 2016 Finals.

He wanted to get Erik Spoelstra fired after his first season in Miami but ended up developing a healthy respect for the coach by the end of his four years there. But the push to have Pat Riley be coach again and remove Spoelstra is used as another valid example of James’ short-sighted nature with coaches.

Removing Ham seemed to be the right thing given how he was calling out players like D’Angelo Russell, while players like Anthony Davis were openly disrespecting his strategies in the playoffs. Hopefully, the new Lakers head coach has better luck.