Throughout his 21 seasons in the NBA, LeBron James has accomplished plenty of things, scored a lot of points and played for quite a few head coaches. He’s even played against three of the coaches that have led his team.
The list of coaches is still growing. Following his 21st season, which ended with a first-round exit at the hands of the Nuggets, the Lakers parted ways with Darvin Ham. Ham, the third coach of James’ tenure in Los Angeles and the ninth of his career, led the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals in 2023 and found himself on the hot seat months later.
With the Lakers moving on from Ham, here’s a look back at the history of James’ coaches in the NBA from Year 1 to Year 21.
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Since beginning his career with Cleveland in 2003, James has played for nine different head coaches.
Paul Silas, James’ first coach, is one of three of his coaches to be fired in-season. James played for two coaches (Mike Brown and Erik Spoelstra) for a combined nine seasons.
Here is each coach James has played for in his career:
*Malone was hired on an interim basis
James’ first NBA head coach was Silas, who joined the Cavs after spending the previous five seasons leading the Charlotte and New Orleans Hornets. Silas, a three-time champion as a player, was tabbed to help ease James’ transition to the league.
In Year 1, James was named Rookie of the Year with averages of 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, but the Cavs fell one win shy of the East’s final playoff spot with a 35-47 record.
Silas was relieved of his duties 64 games into his second season at the helm after Cleveland dropped nine of 12 games to fall to 34-30 on the season.
Malone, the father of Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, stepped in on an interim basis following the firing of Silas. He led Cleveland to an 8-10 record over the final 18 games of the season and at 42-40, the Cavaliers missed the 2005 NBA Playoffs by a tiebreaker.
Cleveland hired Brown in the 2005 offseason and the then-35-year-old became the second youngest head coach in the league.
In Year 1, Brown helped lead the Cavaliers to a 50-32 record, good for the franchise’s first playoff berth since 1998 as the East’s fourth seed, eliminating Washington in six games before losing a decisive Game 7 to Detroit in the East Semifinals.
In Brown’s second season at the helm, James and the Cavaliers made an improbable run to the NBA Finals after winning 50 games and earning the East’s second seed.
The Cavs took a step back in Year 3, winning 45 games and losing in the East Semifinals before Brown led the team to back-to-back 60-win seasons in 2008-09 (66) and 2009-10 (61). James was named MVP in each season but Cleveland failed to return to the Finals, losing in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009 and in the East Semifinals in 2010.
Ahead of James’ impending free agency in 2010, the Cavaliers parted ways with Brown in an attempt to revamp the situation and retain James.
With James’ free agency decision to join the Heat in 2010 came the decision to play under Spoelstra, a descendant of the Pat Riley lineage who famously began his time with the Heat as a video coordinator.
At the time, Spoelstra was largely unknown and entering his third year as an NBA coach. Despite the ups and downs in Year 1, Miami won 58 games and advanced to the NBA Finals, where it fell to Dallas in six games.
In Years 2 and 3, the relationship between James and Spoelstra grew as Miami posted a combined regular season record of 112-36, won back-to-back championships (the first two of James’ career), and James was named league MVP for the third and fourth time in his career.
