Former assistant coach of LeBron James, David Fizdale had some interesting comments when discussing James’ career after his playing days are over.
With the Cavaliers recently facing Fizdale’s Memphis Grizzlies back-to-back games in which both teams split the games, the ex Miami Heat assistant discussed James as a potential coach in the future.
Fizdale spent four seasons with the four-time MVP in South Florida, which yielded two championships and four straight trips to the NBA finals. Needless to say, Fizdale spent more time with James than most have had the pleasure of having.
Despite James being one of the greatest basketball minds to grace the NBA, when Fizdale was asked if James should pursue coaching once he’s retired, his answer was “no” with no hesitation.
This wasn’t a shot at James, in fact, it was a compliment, as Fizdale went on to say James was “a one-percentile guy when it comes to basketball intelligence.”
Fizdale understands how smart James is and how much he has to offer, but knows that no one will be able to meet the standards of the greatest small forward ever, which would make it impossible for him to coach as he told David McMenamin of ESPN.
“He would kill somebody,” Fizdale said. “Perfection is like [his standard]. He wants perfection. I could see him actually owning his own team and doing something like that, but I think [as a coach], he would end up killing a player at some point because they wouldn’t live up to the expectations that he would set forth.”
Fizdale then continued to pay his respect, saying he has never “been around a guy like that who sees a game that clearly.”
Due to his competitive nature, James will rarely ever say he won’t be good at something, but he actually sounded comfortable in agreeing with Fizdale’s comments.
“He’s a little right,” he said when he was told about Fizdale’s comments. “I don’t have, my patience is not—you’ve got to be very patient as a coach. I don’t think I have that much patience. Not that much.”
It’s unlikely James will ever pursue coaching, as his dreams have always been to own an NBA team instead. With the money he is making from his basketball career as well as his off court money flow, it is likely James will be in a financial position to do so down the road.
When told about the comments from his former coach, James had a pretty funny reaction: smiling and realizing that what he said is probably true.
For now, we can sit back and enjoy the best player in the world going to work every day on the floor.
