Gilbert Arenas says Darvin Ham had a hard job coaching LeBron James: ‘Your star player is smarter than you’

Former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas believes that former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham had a hard job coaching star forward LeBron James since the four-time champion is “smarter” than him.

“We just gonna be honest: Your star player’s probably more smarter than you, right?” Arenas began, speaking on Ham’s time with the Lakers. “And the fact that your star player is smarter than you, that’s a hard job to have. You literally have to talk to LeBron’s ego. I gotta talk to his basketball – for him to accept you – it’s like talkin’ to some genius. For him to just, like, ‘Oh, oh, okay,’ you have to outsmart him.”

The Lakers fired Ham after just two seasons following their first-round exit in the playoffs in the 2023-24 season. Los Angeles lost in five games to the No. 2-seeded Denver Nuggets after earning the No. 7 seed in the West by way of the play-in tournament.

As the Lakers’ head coach, Ham compiled a 90-74 record in the regular season and a 9-12 mark in the playoffs. The Lakers went just 1-8 across nine games in their final two playoff series under Ham (both against Denver). Most of Ham’s playoff wins with L.A. came in the 2022-23 season, when the team reached the Western Conference Finals before falling to the Nuggets.

Even though Ham led the team to the postseason in back-to-back campaigns, the Lakers had to battle through the play-in tournament both times to make the playoffs in the West.

Still, that didn’t stop the now-Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach from taking a shot at the Lakers after Milwaukee won the NBA Cup this season.

“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.

“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver. We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State.”

While Arenas may believe that James’ basketball IQ made it tough for him to be coached by Ham, one could argue that there are very few players or coaches ever that have the innate basketball knowledge and ability that James has.

He’s the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and is currently fourth all time in total assists. He’s won four titles, four MVPs, four Finals MVPs and made the All-Star Game 20 times.

After letting Ham go, the Lakers decided to hire another former NBA player in J.J. Redick. Last season, James and Redick started a podcast together where they talked about basketball, and it’s possible that has helped them form a good player-coach relationship.

The Lakers are currently on a three-game winning streak and are 16-12 on the season. They hold the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference.