Try coaching here, Tyronn
HOPEFULLY, Jeff Hornacek chuckled when he heard Tyronn Lue say that coaching LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers is “the hardest job.” Maybe Kenny Atkinson smiled as well. Atkinson, the Nets coach, is fighting an uphill battle just to return Brooklyn to mediocrity. The Nets finished with the NBA’s worst record and because of a trade that pre-dates Atkinson’s hiring, the Nets will be swapping first round picks with the Boston Celtics in June.
It could be worse, of course. Atkinson could have Phil Jackson breathing down his neck and forcing him to run an offense that neither the head coach nor the players are enamored with. Welcome to Hornacek’s world.
Yet Lue, who coaches three AllStars and is favored to return to the NBA Finals, wants us to believe that he has the toughest job. Right.
Are there challenges? Of course. LeBron can be a handful. He wants things his way and he usually gets what he wants. For example, David Blatt out, Tyronn Lue in as Cavs coach.
There are times he wants to rest. There are times when he’ll overrule the head coach and run his own play. That comes with the territory. The Miami Heat dealt with it for four years.
But LeBron also performs when the bright lights are turned on. The Cavs have won six straight playoff games to open the postseason after winning Wednesday’s Game 2 against Toronto, 125-103. It’s actually eight straight if you go back to last June’s thrilling NBA Finals win over Golden State. Hardest job? “It’s the hardest job, by far,” Lue said on ESPN’s NBA Lockdown podcast. “It’s the hardest job. But I’ve been through a lot of tough things in my life anyway, and I just try not to listen to the outside noise — to the media and what they have to say. As long as I have the support of (Cavs general manager) David Griffin, (principal owner) Dan Gilbert, my players, the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, as long as I have that support, that’s all that matters.”
Lue did not say that coaching LeBron makes the job difficult. Instead, he says the scrutiny he faces, mostly from the media, makes the job challenging.
Yes, that’s the same critical analysis every coach of a contender faces. That also comes with the territory. Doc Rivers, who like Lue won an NBA championship, is currently under the microscope after the Clippers were eliminated by the lower seeded Utah Jazz.
“When I was a player, probably about seven to eight years ago, I’m trying to attack every reporter that said something,” Lue said. “But now I’ve come to the realization that it’s not worth it. People are going to say what they have to say, and they got to sell books or they got to sell stories. They have to do it. That’s their job.
“But it’s just, I don’t like it when they make stuff up . ... If I didn’t do a good job or I didn’t do something (correctly), then I understand that. That’s your job. You got to write it. But when you make stuff up, that’s the part that I don’t get that kind of makes me mad.”
Apparently, Lue was upset that he was questioned for benching Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love during the Cavs’ 26-point comeback in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers. In Lue’s defense, that’s absurd. He clearly pushed all the right buttons in coaching his team to the greatest comeback in playoff history.
But every coach in any sport can point to what they perceive as being treated unfairly by the fans and media. And it must be frustrating for Lue to know that when the Cavs win LeBron gets most of the credit.
But Lue had to know that going in. He was on the bench as Blatt’s assistant before being promoted to head coach. He also had the option of turning down the job. ut coaching a once-in-a-lifetime talent like LeBron is not something a first-time head coach turns down. You take it and run with it with the understanding that there are unique challenges. Hornacek has unique challenges with the Knicks. Same with Atkinson in Brooklyn.
Would Lue consider changing places with either coach?
BGETTY