Dwight Howard Blames Darvin Ham’s Firing On LeBron James While Claiming LBJ Knew Anthony Davis Was Being Traded

LeBron James has played under 10 different coaches in his career. The number isn’t outrageous considering he’s been playing for over two decades. However, the perception is that he has always had a significant influence on coaching appointments and dismissals, among many other matters in his teams.

This perception is further cemented when we consider that when any other team, apart from LeBron’s, fires their coaches, things pan out in a pretty sedate manner, with no conspiracy theories and controversies doing the rounds. Recently, two major teams fired their coaches, and no blame was thrown at the star players in those teams.

Taylor Jenkins, the former head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, who joined the team in 2019, was recently fired. Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets was also fired after their 10-year-long association. While discussing the sackings on Above The Rim with DH 12, Dwight Howard segued into LeBron, stating that the King is truly involved in major decisions for his teams.

Co-host Sniper Jones brought up the conversation by saying, “How come, when they get traded from a LeBron’s team, Bron has something to do with it? [Nuggets] coach gets fired, we don’t hear [Nikola] Jokic had anything to do with nothing.”

Howard denied Jokic’s or Ja Morant’s involvement in their coaches getting fired. When asked if LeBron played any role in Darvin Ham losing LA Lakers’ job after the 2024 Playoffs exit, Howard said, “He did.”

Howard then took the conversation into the Anthony Davis-Luka Doncic trade. “Man, you know good and well Bron knew that they were trading AD.”

But then, when the shocking trade took place, LeBron stated that he didn’t even know something was in motion, let alone approve it. However, several people scoffed at his statement.

The trade was too big for people to believe that the biggest superstar on the team wasn’t aware of it. In addition, LeBron and AD have the same agent. Kevin Garnett was one of the first people to call out LBJ. The NBA legend took to Instagram and wrote, “Bron lyyyyyyyyyynnn. Of course, he knew… had to sign off on it.. simple!! NBA biz.”

Surprisingly, Rich Paul also claimed that he had no idea the Lakers-Mavericks were cooking something up.

“99.9% of the time, I’m going to know what’s going on. The one time I didn’t was the one time we all didn’t… I’m glad I didn’t know because it probably wouldn’t [have] happened if you did know,” said Paul.

Rich Paul on the Luka-AD trade:

“99.9% of the time, I'm going to know what's going on. The one time I didn't was the one time we all didn't… I'm glad I didn't know because it probably wouldn't happened if you did know.”

(h/t @pickuphoop)https://t.co/BEjqw9puQs

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 19, 2025

These statements aren’t enough for people to believe that things can happen inside the Lakers organization without LeBron’s involvement.

When Ham was fired last year, LeBron was believed to be the reason behind that. People became even more sure about that when the Lakers hired JJ Redick, who had done a podcast with LBJ at the time.

Although LeBron denied any involvement in Redick’s appointment, it was obvious that his relationship with the former NBA star was also a factor. Possibly a major factor too, going by the King’s stature.