CLEVELAND _ During his five seasons working under Doc Rivers with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue admitted he served as Rivers' "bad guy."
Lue was the one Rivers called on to deliver his tough messages, usually about players' shortcomings on the court. Lue may have been a 6-foot, 175-pound former NBA point guard, but he was fearless and a great communicator. So even in 2009-10, when Lue was sitting a row behind the bench as the Celtics' director of basketball development, his mentor began grooming him, handing him perhaps the toughest task of all.
"He always said as a head coach you had to save your bullets for big moments," Lue said of Clippers coach Rivers on Thursday. "So I would call guys out, and we would get into it."
Such duties prepared Lue for last season, when he was promoted to coach the Cavaliers following David Blatt's firing on Jan. 22. Lue directed the Cavs to the NBA championship, breaking Cleveland's 52-year title drought.
Now, at age 39, Lue could be on the way to becoming the best coach LeBron James has ever played for, surpassing the Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra. Ex-Cavs coach Mike Brown should not be discounted, especially for teaching James a defense-first mentality.
But not since James played at St. Vincent-St. Mary may he have encountered a coach like Lue, a coach confident enough to confront James when necessary, even during Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
That's what happened against the Golden State Warriors on June 19, according to Lee Jenkins' story for Sports Illustrated honoring James as the magazine's Sportsperson of the Year. Jenkins described what happened with 2:27 remaining in the first half and the Cavs trailing by three.
Lue called timeout and, as Jenkins wrote, told James, "'Bron, you've got to be better than this."
"I thought we needed more from him, and I thought I had to push one of those buttons," Lue recounted Thursday before the Cavs fell to the Clippers at Quicken Loans Arena. "He said, 'What am I supposed to do?' I said, 'Shoot the ball, score the ball, don't turn it over, guard Draymond. (Green).' He got mad, and it was all history from there."
Lue laughed, recalling the Cavs' 93-89 victory in Oracle Arena. But the confrontation with James wasn't over. As Jenkins wrote, Lue told James the same thing at halftime in front of his teammates. James turned to assistant coach Damon Jones, then James Jones, with whom he was making his sixth consecutive Finals appearance.
Damon Jones suggested, " 'Why not trust him?' " while James Jones asked, " 'Is he telling the truth?' "
