Lakers: LeBron James Tweet During Play-In Game Sends Internet Into a Frenzy

In a typical season, LeBron James would be gearing up for the first round of the playoffs this weekend. But LeBron and the Lakers far-from-typical season resulted in James watching last night's Clippers-Pelicans play-in game just like the rest of us.

The Clippers lead was consistently in double digits late and the third quarter and early into the fourth. That's right about when LeBron decided to send a tweet touting his former coach Tyronn Lue as the "best" head coach in the NBA.

Simply the BEST coach in the game! ARGUE with your kids not me. 🤷🏾‍♂️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 16, 2022

Soon after LeBron sent the tweet, the Clippers began to crumble. The Pelicans would go on to win the game and end the Clippers season.

James' tweet seemingly jinxed (if you believe in those sort of things) the game for the Clippers and quickly become internet fodder. It could also be construed as yet another track on LeBron's cryptic-not-so-cryptic Twitter Greatest Hits Album.

Back in the spring of 2019, the Lakers were close to hiring Lue after firing Luke Walton. It seemed like a more natural fit than some of the other candidates the Lakers were considering. Lue and LeBron had history together from their Cleveland years, including winning the 2016 Finals in Lue's first season on the sidelines.

The Lakers and Lue never hammered out a deal that spring despite mutual interest. NBA insider Marc Stein subsequently reported that it was due to the fact that the Lakers front office wanted to handpick Lue's assistant coaches.

Among the issues that have led to a breakdown in talks between the Lakers and Ty Lue: League sources say that the Lakers have been trying to impose their choices for assistant coaches on Lue. @espn first reported the impasse between the Lakers are Lue
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 8, 2019

ESPN's Ramona Shelbourne also reported Lue felt "insulted" by LA only offering the coach a three-year deal.

Negotiations really deteriorated w/ Ty Lue when the Lakers refused to offer more than a three year deal that was designed to line up with LeBron James’ contract. Lue felt insulted the Lakers only saw him as a coach for LeBron, sources close to the process told ESPN.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 9, 2019

As the story goes, Lue instead decided to join the Clippers staff as an assistant coach after being scorned by the Lakers. The Lakers hired Frank Vogel and indeed handpicked his assistants for him.

Lue wanted the job, but wanted it on his terms.

This season, Lue earned plenty of coach of the year consideration for keeping the Clippers relevant without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

It's pretty clear now how LeBron feels about who LA should have hired when they had the chance.