LeBron James's Agent Wanted Luke Walton Replaced, NBA Commissioner Confirms

LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul is known to have a strong influence in the NBA owing to him managing some of the top players in the league. A recent ESPN report stated sources talking about Paul attending practices to scout out players and coaches.

The report also claimed that Paul was against Luke Walton coaching Los Angeles Lakers after James signed a four-year deal with the franchise. He wanted a new coach and spoke to NBA commissioner Adam Silver about wanting a different coach at the helm – the preference was Tyronn Lue, who won the NBA championship in 2016 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The NBA commissioner has confirmed the reports and revealed that Paul approached him in a restaurant and spoke about the need to replace Walton. Silver admits it was just a regular conversation and believes it was just Paul wanting to air his opinion about the coaching situation.

“He was in the same restaurant,” Silver said, as quoted on Silver Screen and Roll. “There were two people sitting there. He sat down for a second, and I think he said something along the lines that, ‘Luke Walton is not the right guy to coach LeBron.’”

“My reaction was to shrug my shoulders and maybe say, ‘Well, who do you think is the right guy to coach?’ And he mentioned a name and that was that. I think as commissioner, I don’t want to shut people off who have a point of view,” he added.

Walton and the Lakers eventually parted ways by mutual consent but not before yet another disappointing campaign that saw the Lakers miss out on the playoffs for a franchise-record sixth consecutive season. They have since hired Frank Vogel as the new head coach with Jason Kidd as his top assistant.

Vogel was not their first choice as Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue were both interviewed by the Lakers front office. The former decided to accept an offer from the Phoenix Suns, while the latter turned down the offer from the Lakers as they were unwilling to match his demands of a five-year deal by offering just three years.