With only one NBA series going on ahead of the NBA Finals next week, the conversation about the game has inevitably turned to bigger questions of the future and of legacy, even though there’s a very interesting series going on between Milwaukee and Toronto.
And yesterday, NBA Hall of Famer and NBA TV commentator Isiah Thomas had an interesting soundbite about LeBron James. During an appearance on Fox Sports 1’s First Things First, Thomas went off on his belief that the NBA as a whole “failed” LeBron James by never having him play under a championship coach.
Now, while it’s an interesting take, I don’t necessarily agree that it was a failure of the league LeBron never played for famous coaches before they were already famous. Erik Spoelstra, some would argue, is the closest he came to having a Hall of Fame coach. And Ty Lue’s coaching career is currently on hold, so we don’t know about his future yet either.
And while Hall of Fame coaching is certainly an asset, LeBron’s growth as a player and person over the course of his career have been remarkable. Also, there’s a reason Hall of Fame coaches are rare. It’s not easy to find them and James has had one of the top two or three careers the NBA has ever seen without one, so I think he did alright.
