Stephen A. Smith asked Tyronn Lue if he considered himself one of the best coaches in the league. The LA Clippers coach, without blinking, said a confident “Yes”. The 47-year-old coach didn’t just say it just like that. It was the echo of the tough time he handled as a rookie coach in Cleveland. Speaking of his first coaching job, the 3x NBA Champ revealed how he entered the Wine & Gold team’s locker room amid the turbulent times with LeBron James & Co.

Tyronn Lue is undoubtedly a revered coach in the business. One of his notable achievements is defeating the 73-9 Warriors in the 2016 Finals with LeBron James & Co. It’s still an unimaginable feat to achieve in the first year of his coaching career, especially when the team was going through a rough patch in the locker room. It was right after the season when the team lost in the 2015 Finals and fired their coach, David Blatt.

Speaking to Stephen A. Smith, Tyronn Lue stated that he wouldn’t have picked up the job if not for Doc Rivers and the late Jerry West. Notably, Lue served as the assistant coach under Rivers and board member West for the Clippers before joining the Cavs. He had a reason for it too. “I was scared… our locker room was in disarray, we weren’t really getting along as good as we wanted to and so when you had to move over… it was hard and I was scared.” 

Moreover, he didn’t want to sign the extension right then, saying, “You coaching LeBron James the best player in the world… Kyrie Irving Kevin Love and, you know, David Blatt already went to the NBA finals. So if I don’t get to at least Game 7 of the NBA Finals I was a bust. So, it was a lot of pressure.” However, he beat all odds to win the championship in one go.

How did Ty Lue fix LeBron James’ & Co’s locker room situation?

During the first season of James’ return to the Cavaliers, the team had a turbulent locker room because of various challenges like roles, ego, and expectations. But most importantly, King James and Coach Blatt didn’t get along well, and the Cavs had to fire the coach right after the season despite reaching the Finals. On the other hand, critics were already all over James, calling him the infamous “Coach Killer”. 

However, the superstar didn’t budge, as he said, “People get it so misconstrued because I’m a smart basketball player and I’ve voiced my opinion about certain things,” in an interview after the issue blew up. He also said he has been that way so far and will remain that way, saying, “I’ll do with T-Lue. And at the end of the day, they’ll still have their final call.”

Amid this situation, Lue found a way to fix things before the start of the season. Speaking of it, he said, “When I took over. I sat down with Kyrie, Kevin, and LeBron I said, ‘Listen, these are the things we got to change, these are the things we got to get better at and you got to hold responsibility for what we’re trying to do’. And they said, ‘Listen Ty, whatever you want to do, you know, we’re 100% on board.”

That’s it. It helped Lue achieve the unthinkable. What do you make of the inspiring story? Let us know in the comments below.