LeBron James ignoring head coach Luke Walton’s playcalling?

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LeBron James
photo via: Jonathan Ferrey/ Getty images

When LeBron James signed a massive four-year $153.3 million dollar deal to join the Los Angeles Lakers, he knew that his patience was going to be tested to the utmost. James made that evident on media day, quoting from the USA Today article by Martin Rogers entitled ‘For LeBron James, name of game in Los Angeles is patience’:

 “I am not a very patient guy and I understand I have to be that right now. I have to be patient with myself too, it is a new start for me, it is my first year here and first year in the system. I know I can play the game of basketball, but this is on me too.” – LeBron James

It seems that the supposed ‘patience’ that James had quoted in the off-season has already worn off just 20 games into his Lakers tenure. The news coming out on Wednesday from longtime ‘LeBron reporter’ Brian Windhorst that James has been ignoring the playcalling from head coach Luke Walton. Windhorst reported:

The scouts also have noticed that when James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive playcalls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers. Walton has adjusted, and now when James is running the show, Walton will typically just let him call the game. This probably shouldn’t be considered a slight — it’s just James being James.

This may come as no surprise to some who have followed James throughout his career as he has had his fair share of run in’s with former coaches. Back in his time in Cleveland, many would say that he was responsible for head coach David Blatt being relieved of his duties so that James could get his preferred coach choice in Tyronne Lue. In his time in Miami, Pat Riley recently revealed that James tried to get head coach Eric Spoelstra fired in favor of Riley.

Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson
Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

However, Magic Johnson has tried to extinguish some of the noise regarding this issue stating:

“Brian got it wrong. This is about making sure that they can say something on ESPN and everybody can just talk.” – Magic Johnson

While this could very well be a big deal, it is important to not jump to conclusions and report that the sky is falling for the Lakers. Seems like awfully terrible timing for this news to come out as the Lakers faithful are still trying to collect themselves after an embarrassing 32-point loss to the Denver Nuggets suffered on Tuesday.

Only time will tell what the outcome of this story will be, but winning heals all wounds.

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