Report: LeBron James wanted Cavaliers to hire Mark Jackson
By Josh Hill
LeBron James and his posse wanted Mark Jackson to coach the Cavaliers.
With the firing of David Blatt this week in Cleveland, the narrative shifts back to how LeBron James is running the team and not doing that great of a job. Everyone in Cleveland is denying it and the rest of the world is laughing at them, as LeBron tries to wash his hands of any negativity that might be surrounding the team’s latest big move.
But beneath the narrative we’re all eating up is an even deeper conspiracy that further highlights just how rough things are in Cleveland.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports, LeBron and his team had already handpicked Mark Jackson to be the Cavaliers next head coach. The only complication being that Jackson had to join Rich Paul’s agency — which didn’t happen.
"Before David Blatt ever conducted his first training camp practice in September 2014, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, had the coach’s succession plan in place: Mark Jackson."
This creates a whole new narrative to what we’re already chewing on as far as LeBron being the puppeteer of the Cavs. Not only is this about LeBron basically running the Cavaliers, it’s also about Rich Paul owning them. Dan Gilbert may have the deed to the ranch but Paul is buying up all the land around it, from LeBron James down to Tristan Thompson and potential head coaches.
We don’t have to call in Mulder and Scully to see that the truth is right there in front of us — and it might be something that is holding the team back. If LeBron and Paul are holding the Cavaliers hostage, that’s something that only puts more pressure on the team to win.
LeBron’s only title success came in Miami, where he had Pat Riley playing The Emperor to LBJ’s Vader. The Heat were LeBron’s team but built in Riley’s image. Having a hard-nosed outsider party involved in the atomic makeup of the team seems to be what is missing in Cleveland — and what drop LeBron out of Miami.
This narrative goes much deeper than just LeBron running the Cavs. As long as Cleveland continues to sit without a title doing the LeBron era, the narrative is only going to sting more and more.