You would think coaching a team with arguably the best player since Michael Jordan would be a piece of cake, but that is not necessarily the case according to Tyronn Lue. The head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers may have won a NBA title a year ago, but Lue says coaching a team with LeBron James and the lofty expectations is an intense responsibility.

“It’s the hardest job, by far,” Lue said on ESPN’s NBA Lockdown podcast. “It’s the hardest job. But I’ve been through a lot of tough things in my life anyway, and I just try not to listen to the outside noise — to the media and what they have to say. As long as I have the support of [Cavs general manager] David Griffin, [principal owner] Dan Gilbert, my players, the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, as long as I have that support, that’s all that matters.”

It’s easy to have that kind of support when you win, and Lue has done just that. What Lue is saying illustrates the point that coaching a team with a mega star brings heightened expectations. The moment you slip even just a little bit, you could be out of work. One needs to only look back to last season in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers fired head coach David Blatt midway through the 2015-2016 season despite owning a record of 30-11 and well on their way to the top seed in the Eastern Conference a year after running to the NBA Finals as conference champions. But Blatt couldn’t coach an injury-depleted Cavs team to an NBA title against the Golden State Warriors, and the narrative in Cleveland suggested Blatt was not connecting with LeBron and the team. In stepped Lue, who coached the Cavs to a 27-14 record in the second half of the season before coming from behind from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals to win it all.

Lue has a whole new perspective on things as a coach now than he did as a player, and that has at times been quite the adjustment.

“I don’t like the media attention. That’s why this job is just so tough because you’re out in front all the time,” Lue said. “It’s tough because whatever you say, if you say one wrong thing — especially leading this team — it goes viral. It’s a big deal.”

It’s true. When you coach LeBron, what you say will be magnified as much as possible, especially when hot topics develop regarding issues like resting star players in the regular season.

“That’s why I know that the media has to do what they have to do, because when you rest him, they cry, ‘Oh, he should play! [Michael] Jordan would never sit!’ And then you play him 42 minutes: ‘He’s playing too much!'” Lue said. “Like, what? So if you don’t play, you mad. If you play too much, you mad. … And I’ve come to the realization that it is what it is. That’s why I just try to tune the outside noise out.”

Tuning out the outside noise is never a bad idea.

[ESPN]