LeBron James’ Ex-Coach No Longer on Lakers’ Radar to Replace Frank Vogel

The Los Angeles Lakers have a terrible season and fans are not happy at all. A lot of people thought that Rob Pelinka would trade Russell Westbrook. Some even placed the blame on Frank Vogel. Enter LeBron James. He has been playing the game for a really long time. Coaches have been fired from teams he played on. Get the point? Fans thought that LeBron will find a coach who would replace Vogel. People have been calling him “shadow GM” from the first time he joined the NBA. Well, one particular “target” is out of the conversation at the moment.

Michael Malone was commonly mentioned as a replacement for LeBron. He and LeBron worked well together in Cleveland and the king of basketball knows him well. Denver got him through a big deal so he is out of the picture now.

LeBron had a good coach on the table, but the Lakers didn’t replace Vogel

LeBron and Malone have nothing but respect for one another.

“When you work hard on your craft, you see others working just as hard on their craft, it becomes organic and it becomes mutual respect,” LeBron said in September 2020. “I know how much Coach (Malone) put into our schemes, put into our productivity, put into what we needed to do to go out and win ballgames when we were together in Cleveland. I saw that.”

Malone feels the same about him.

“The minutes he’s playing, how effective he is on both ends of the floor, and the impact he has on both ends of the floor, his will to win is just incredible,” the coach said. “I think he’ll probably wind up guarding Nikola (Jokic) this series, like they put Kawhi (Leonard) on Nikola last series. LeBron is all about doing whatever it takes to win the game.”

Malone watched LeBron grow into a star. He watched the kid from Akron become the GOAT.

“When you just step back and marvel at what LeBron is doing at this stage of his career, how he continues to find ways to improve and get better and take whatever team he’s on to new heights, that defines his greatness,” Malone said.