Lakers Rumors: LeBron James 'Bristled' at Darvin Ham's Early-Season Minutes Limits

If you recall that Darvin Ham's decision to try limiting LeBron James' minutes when the Los Angeles Lakers began the season didn't last long, there is a reason for that.

Per ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, James "bristled at the idea of restricting his minutes" when the Lakers tried it.

Following the Lakers' season-opening loss to the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 24, a lot of attention was paid to the fact that James only played 29 minutes.

In particular, there was a stretch in the fourth quarter with 8:48 remaining until the 6:04 mark when James wasn't on the floor. The Lakers were outscored 7-0 during that run to turn a deficit of four points into an 11-point gap.

"We'll see. In all likelihood, yes," Ham said about limiting James' minutes after the game. "It's easy with him to get caught up in the emotion of the game and you tend to forget you want to play these long stretches, but in order for him to be as effective as possible, we have to be mindful of the minute output and how long his stretches are."

In the second game of the season, James was back up to 35 minutes and played the entire fourth quarter in a 100-95 win over the Phoenix Suns. He told reporters after the game it "was an easy" call in the heat of the moment.

"I know how much work I've put in to be able to play quarters or whatever the case may be," James added. "And I understand that we definitely have a system put in place, but tonight called for me to go outside the box."

It wasn't a secret that James and some Lakers players didn't always see eye-to-eye with Ham this season. There were rumblings about Ham's job status during the regular season after The Athletic's Shams Charania and Jovan Buha reported on Jan. 4 that there was a "deepening disconnect" within the locker room.

The Lakers ultimately played out the season with Ham before firing him on Friday, four days after they were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Denver Nuggets.

James averaged 35.3 minutes per game this season, which was his fewest since 2020-21 (33.4). He did seem to be more selective about when to cut loose on a game-to-game basis.

The 17.9 field-goal attempts per game were the fewest of James' career. His 25.7 points per game average was his fewest in a season since he was a rookie in 2003-04, but he shot a career-high 41.0 percent from three-point range.