The advantage of having someone like Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James on a team is that he operates both as a superstar and coach on the floor.
James’ basketball IQ is well-regarded in the NBA as he’s able to diagnose and dissect the floor instantaneously and make the right play.
While James shut down any possibility of becoming a head coach, he certainly has the basketball acumen for it given his deep understanding of how every piece matters on a winning team.
For example, James stressed the importance of assistant coaches during a recent Q&A on his “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash:
“I think the responsibility that a head coach has on the things that he has to prepare for and the things that he has to get the guys ready to play it’s so much already. For the assistant coaches to be able to take some of the burden off the head coach either with helping with substitution patterns, helping with all the personalities in the locker room. A head coach shouldn’t have to deal with that all time. And now I understand…like I’ve been fortunate in my career to have head coaches that had an open door policy. If you had a problem come and talk to me. But on a day-to-day basis, a head coach shouldn’t have to be facilitating that all the time because there’s ups and downs and things. Guys have their emotions throughout the course of a season and if you have great assistant they can tune that down. They can help with that, facilitate that. And also the small things that happen when guys get to the arena earlier or guys get to practice facilities earlier. Being able to have an assistant coach come out there and work with you, watch film with you, get on the court with you, things of that nature. And just conversate throughout the rest of that day, throughout the rest of the games, on the road, whatever the case may be. I think assistant coaches are very vital to team success.
James added that head coaches are only as good as their assistants and that they contribute to team success in an impactful way:
“I think a head coach is great, but I think a head coach is great as they can be is only as great as their assistants. I think their assistant coaches really, really help with micromanaging things. Head coaches are so locked in. You guys are standing up throughout the whole game pretty much and you guys are trying to watch everything that’s going on. Is that guy in a rhythm? Is that guy not in a rhythm? Or maybe even missed that. I’m so locked in on, OK we didn’t blitz this guy the right way. To have the assistants to be able to sometimes just lock the head coach back in. Not saying you wasn’t locked in, it’s just maybe I was just focused on this. We didn’t get a great shot the last three or four possessions. I wasn’t thinking about this guy right here, I haven’t put him in four or five minutes. Having assistants being able to just be able to micromanage a lot of things and bring things to the forefront of y’all’s mind. While you guys are focused on so much, I think when you have great assistants it matters a lot.”
Assistant coaches largely are unheralded for their work behind the scenes, but there’s no doubt they play a key role in winning. James has been fortunate to work with great assistants over the years, so it’s easy to see why he reveres them so much.
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