Throughout his storied NBA career, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has had his fair share of head coaches. Only a few coaches have been able to stand the test of time when coaching James with Erik Spoelstra having the most success while the superstar was led the Miami Heat to two titles.
With LeBron going through coaches many times over the course of his career, the speculation surrounding Frank Vogel's future in Los Angeles began the second he was hired. Vogel had some success with the Indiana Pacers, but whether he'd be able to do the same with the Lakers was uncertain, leading to talk that he might not have the job for long, especially with former head coaches on the staff in Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins.
Fortunately for Vogel, LeBron has a lot of respect for his head coach, and that respect was earned long ago.
“I already respected Frank just from a competitive standpoint, and when I was in Miami competing versus the Indiana Pacers teams,” James said of his Lakers head coach. “You saw how they were always prepared. They were dedicated to their game plan. They were always ready for our matchups every time we played them. The battles we had versus those teams in Indiana. Didn't need to have a level of respect because it was already there from the jump.”
In LeBron's first season with the Lakers, Luke Walton was a relatively new head coach who had some success as an assistant under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. Walton was also a disciple of Phil Jackson with many, including Kobe Bryant, singing his praises as a former player that was destined to be a great coach.
However, Walton's time with the Lakers came to an end abruptly after James' first season with the team. This paved the way for Tyronn Lue, who coached LeBron to a title with the Cleveland Cavaliers, to become the next in line in Los Angeles, but contract talks broke down.
Ultimately, Los Angeles hired Frank Vogel and have exceeded expectations at this point in the NBA season. The Lakers are sitting atop the Western Conference standings while being a legitimate title contender with Anthony Davis and James, arguably being the best duo in the league right now.
Although things are going exceptionally well in Vogel's first season, the team hasn't really faced any adversity as of yet outside of dealing with the tragic passing of Bryant last month. It remains to be seen if things will change in the event the Lakers fail to win a championship or have some sort of collapse in the playoffs.
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