Hall of Fame Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley had one request for NBA coaches at his statue ceremony: dress better, which is advice ESPN's Stephen A Smith says LeBron James should listen to. Smith has advocated for NBA coaches and players to improve their outfits on game days.

When people accuse Smith of entering an arena as if he's going to take the court as a player, he says his swag is a testament to his outfits, he said, per ESPN's First Take.

“People will say he's walking in like he's one of the players, and I said, no, totally false, I'm not on their level. I'm walking in like I'm the best-dressed in the arena. That's what I was walking in like. I said the players needed to take notes, and now, here we are this year, and I'm still telling the players they need to take notes. All that damn money LeBron and them making, you can’t dress better than that?

“I’m so happy Pat Riley brought that up. He got a statue outside of the arena, and he's letting everybody know there should be a dress code, at least for the coaches. All this money y’all make, dressing like y’all shopping at Target or something.”

Riley had a reputation for wearing some of the more expensive suits during his coaching days, which is an NBA trend that's faded over the years, and one that ESPN's Stephen A Smith clearly misses. Between most players, including Lakers' LeBron James, entering the arena in more casual outfits and most coaches wearing a pullover and black pants, the NBA doesn't see as many expensive suits as it used to during the early 1990s and the late 2000s.

JJ Redick takes responsibility for Lakers' shortcomings

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Lakers head coach JJ Redick points to forward LeBron James (23) during the first quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden
Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Head coach JJ Redick took responsibility for the Lakers' offensive shortcomings in Sunday's 111-89 loss to the Celtics. As part of a bad trend, the Lakers failed to respond to the defensive adjustments by one of the better defending teams in the NBA, which Redick says falls on him, as the team's head coach, he said, per the California Post's Khobi Price.

“When teams play the deep drop, we have our counters, and we just got to [execute],” Redick said. “I took ownership of that. We have our counters for deep drop. We got to do a better job of….we looked it up today. Our lowest potential assist games are all against the deep drop, so I got to do a better job.”

The Lakers, 34-22, have lost three of their last five games.