On Monday’s episode of the Draymond Green Podcast with Baron Davis L.A. Clippers head coach Ty Lue gave a special guest appearance. Lue transitioned from playing to coaching smoothly and now has over a decade’s experience under his belt. Furthermore, on the show he discussed breaking a stigma around him and establishing himself as one of NBA’s best.

The stigma mentioned was his being labeled as “LeBron’s coach” despite proving himself a great coach. Lue said on the podcast, “Bron’s been in the league, what, 21 years? He’s had four championships. So, I mean, they act like he won 21 championships.” As the Clippers’ head coach stated, LeBron James has been for 21 years and won only four championships, one of which was under Lue’s leadership.

And that is no disrespect to the Lakers superstar’s legacy but gives people a perspective on how it was a team effort that led to the Cavaliers winning the Championship in 2016. However, Lue gave LeBron his due credit as the 47-year-old accepted he made him a much better coach because he knew the right execution and was punctual.

He said, “I’m always going to give him the credit because he made me better who I am. And so hopefully one day he can say, you know what, T. Lou was one of the guys that got me over the top when I got back to Cleveland.” He only had one wish from the Lakers veteran that being one day James will give the Clippers coach his flowers. Interestingly, Lue and James could have been reunited in Los Angeles let’s get to know more about that.

“He called me twice”: Ty Lue recalls the time when LeBron tried to convince him to become the Lakers head coach

Ty Lue and LeBron James share a great bond that goes way back to their Cleveland days. The current Clippers head coach could have been on the other L.A. team, as he mentioned on the popular show hosted by Stephen A. Smith about the scenario. The L.A. Lakers needed to get their head coaching department sorted ahead of the 2018-19 season after firing Luke Walton.

And a Ty Lue emerged as the clear-cut favorite to take the hot seat in Los Angeles. However, things didn’t pan out how they were supposed to as Lue recalls, “He [James] did, and he called me twice. He called me, ‘What do I have to do? I said, ‘No, I want them to respect me, I don’t want to have to go to you to get my deal done; if they don’t respect me like I should be respected, then it’s okay.”

As LeBron’s former head coach expected the Lakers management to respect him and make an offer worthy to a candidate of his stature. James shares a special connection with Lue to this day given their championship connection. But according to Lue, he decided to set the right precedent for the upcoming coaches as the Lakers offered him a three-year deal with less money when other coaches were getting five-year deals. All of this didn’t fit right with him and he decided to instead join the Clippers and the rest is history as we know.