On Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped a dismal performance at home against the Phoenix Suns, losing 127-109. LeBron James had an abysmal outing, and Fox Sports analyst Skip Bayless believes he played poorly on purpose to force the franchise to fire head coach Darvin Ham.
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Suns’ superstar guard duo, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, scored an incredible 68 points combined, two more than the Lakers’ entire starting line-up and topscorer D’Angelo Russell combined. James finished the game with only ten points, his worst outing since November 2021. After the game, Bayless speculated that the Lakers superstar wants Ham fired and is sandbagging. He posted on X, formerly called Twitter:
“Games like this make you think LeBron is going to get Darvin Ham fired”
Bayless could be onto something. Last week, NBA insider Shams Charania reported there was a growing disconnect between the Lakers players and Ham. The team was miffed by the head coach’s constant tweaks to the line-ups and inconsistent management of players’ minutes. As a product of all the drama and inconsistency, the Lakers have an abysmal record of 5-11 since winning the In-Season Tournament.
James’ alleged sandbagging tactic to get a coach fired wouldn’t be new. In January 2016, he scored just 19, 16, 17, and 22 points respectively in former Cavaliers head coach David Blatt’s final four games. In the subsequent 24 games, he only finished with less than 20 points twice. Now, if his performances remain below par, the writing could be on the wall for Ham’s tenure as the Lakers’ head coach.
Gilbert Arenas believes LeBron James is done with Davin Ham
LeBron James wanting the Lakers to fire Darvin Ham is only a theory, but it’s one that Gilbert Arenas has shown complete belief in. On a recent episode of the Gil’s Arena podcast, the retired NBA star said:
“Boy, LeBron (James) over that motherf**er smoked ham. Baked Ham. Fried Ham.”
Arenas was miffed with Ham giving extensive game-time to Jarred Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish who are excellent defenders but are unable to contribute too much on the offensive end. Arenas believes their lack of offensive prowess is hurting the Lakers, and Ham refuses to address the issue. The retired NBA star’s frustration boiled over, and he even suggested that the coach deserved to be physically assaulted:
“They need to bring back choking coaches… If you keep going with these lineups man, I’m sorry, man, just start looking, just start calling around man just start calling around. Start putting your resume out there ’cause it ain’t it.”
The Lakers are 18-19 and in 10th place in the Western Conference standings. They are yet to figure out their best starting lineup with almost half of the regular season gone. General manager Rob Pelinka needs to make sweeping changes to the roster or potentially consider letting another coach try their hand with this roster. What’s certain is that the Lakers need to course correct soon.
That said, however, Arenas’s comments about Ham deserving to be physically assaulted were more than a bit much. Hopefully, none of the players on the Lakers’ roster take Arenas up on his advice.
