Coaching LeBron James is hard.



There is enormous pressure and scrutiny. You can lose your job if you lose, as Luke Walton knows now. You can lose it even if you don’t. Ask David Blatt.



The mental grind of skippering LeBron’s teams in Cleveland for three seasons wore down Tyronn Lue, to the point where his physical health failed him. He also won a championship ring and went to three NBA Finals doing the job.



Lue and Walton are friends, and for years over the summer, they would play craps together in Las Vegas. And last summer when LeBron left the Cavaliers, where Lue was coach, to join the Lakers, where Walton was coach, the two coaches dined in Las Vegas to go over what it’s like to coach him.



Whether or not Lue told Walton everything that night, or Walton took it all to heart, we’ll probably never know. But Walton didn’t do with James in Los Angeles maybe the one thing Lue did in Cleveland that endeared him to LeBron...