No matter what level of sport you play or what kind of talent you have, whether you’re a kid struggling to make the middle school basketball team or a 22-year NBA veteran like LeBron James, every athlete has to deal with coaches.
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Ideally, the athlete-coach relationship is a mutually beneficial one. The coach teaches the athlete and helps them grow, while the athlete’s performance helps the team. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Conflicts arise for a variety of reasons, including disputes over playing time and each player’s role within a coach’s system.
Savannah James has more experience with this issue than most. Her husband LeBron is arguably the most decorated player ever to play, while her sons Bronny and Bryce have each navigated their own fledgling careers with the added difficulty of having a famous last name and the outsized expectations that accompany it.
LeBron has been called a coach on the floor for his high basketball IQ and the power he wields as one of the greatest players of his generation, and that has skewed the player-coach power dynamic on occasion. Bronny and Bryce, though more privileged than most, are still susceptible to the “politics” of the youth sports player-coach dynamic, however, according to their mom Savannah.
On her Everybody’s Crazy podcast, Savannah James explained, “When we’re talking about private institutions, I feel like there’s a lot of entitlement that comes along with that, too. You think that your child is the best thing since pants with pockets, and they should be getting a certain amount of playing time, or should be playing a certain position or whatever that is.”
“That can cause rifts with how coaches react to the parents or maybe even potentially react to the kids,” James continued. “I’ve always told my kids, ‘Listen, you just gotta play your part. There’s nothing you can do to change somebody else’s mind if that’s what they think. So you just gotta roll with it and do your job to the best of your ability and try to prove people wrong.'”
That advice has helped the James boys carve their own paths. Bronny was drafted in the second round last year to his dad’s team, the Lakers, and though his moments in the NBA were fleeting, he put together a bunch of promising performances in the G League.
Bryce recently signed with the University of Arizona, and he’ll begin his Wildcat career in a few months with one of the top programs in the country.
LeBron has always praised Savannah for her role in leading the family and being a role model to their three kids. He’s also proven himself to be a great and present dad despite his insanely busy schedule, but there’s a reason people say that mama knows best. As long as the James gang keeps listening to Savannah, they’re going to be alright.
