Posts Tagged ‘Jim Buss’

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Front Office Phil (Jackson) Headed North?

April 30, 2013  ·  12:42PM



HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – You need a passport for this week’s stop on the Phil Jackson rumor train.

Cleveland is history, Mike Brown‘s the new (old) coach there. The Seattle situation, complete with Chris Hansen and his affinity for Jackson, took a serious hit Monday when Sacramento prevailed in its bid to keep the Kings in California. The Los Angeles Lakers’ situation is still in flux as no one knows what is going to happen with Dwight Howard (free agency looms), Kobe Bryant (rehabilitation from Achilles surgery is underway) and coach Mike D’Antoni (good for next season as coach), but they will all certainly be in the crosshairs this summer.

So the attention to Jackson has shifted north, to Toronto, where reports have the Raptors exploring the possibilities of trying to woo Jackson to be a part of their front office structure. Since he’s made it clear that he has no interest in returning to the league as a coach, the ideal situation for the Zen Master is to return as Front Office Phil.

Jackson’s relationship with new Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment boss, Tim Leiweke, presents the Raptors with an opportunity to pursue Jackson in ways that didn’t seem possible before, as Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com detail here:

One source said that Leiweke’s “vision and energy” and history of shared success at Staples Center with the 11-time championship coach ensures that Jackson will give the pitch strong consideration despite skepticism around the league about his willingness to relocate to Canada.

Amid its pursuit of Jackson in the wake of Leiweke’s arrival, Raptors president Bryan Colangelo is scheduled to meet with the MLSE board next week in hopes of convincing his bosses to pick up the option year on his contract. The 2013-14 option in coach Dwane Casey‘s contract was picked up by Colangelo before this season, but Leiweke’s arrival has thrown both of their futures into some immediate doubt.

In an interview last week with the San Francisco Chronicle, Jackson said “three or four teams” have already expressed interest and that “none of it involves coaching.”

“There are some interesting situations that are presenting themselves, but I really haven’t made up my mind yet what I’m going to do,” Jackson told the Chronicle.

Jackson also confirmed to the newspaper he’s interested in a developing team “where you’d have the influence in [selecting the] coaching staff and the kind of culture that goes along with it.”

It makes sense, until you remember that Jackson’s ties to the Lakers remain extremely strong. And until the Lakers make some concrete decisions about their future, there always be those who hold out hope that Jackson (alongside his fiancée Jeanie Buss) will return to the Lakers and help fix all that’s gone wrong since he departed two years ago.

That reconciliation seems impossible as long as Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak remain at the controls for the Lakers. Quite frankly, they have more pressing matters to tend to, namely what Howard will do in free agency. Having him in the fold with Pau Gasol makes the Lakers’ recovery from their ragged 2012-13 season one of the most crucial stretches in recent franchise history, considering they’ll have to do it without a healthy Bryant to shoulder the bulk of the responsibility.

There remains another potential option in Jackson’s preferred Southern California, one that Lakers faithful fear above all others, and that’s Jackson working down the hall at the Staples Center in the Los Angeles Clippers’ locker room. What better way for the Clippers to cement their takeover as the city’s top basketball outfit than to lure Jackson over to their side in his return to the NBA?

A team with a nucleus of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan with Jackson working behind the scenes (or as coach/executive, if things don’t go Vinny Del Negro‘s way during this postseason) has all sorts of possibilities. Same goes for the Brooklyn Nets, who could have a coaching vacancy this summer, barring a surprise championship run during these playoffs.

So much of this is speculation at this point, with everyone believing that they have the perfect situation for Jackson to walk into and craft to his liking, it’s hard to know what’s a legitimate possibility and what’s just hot air.

But as long as Jackson is reportedly interested in making a comeback, in whatever capacity, there will be suitors lined up to pitch him and plenty of fans anxious to see if he bites.

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D’Antoni Must Step Into The Void … Now!

April 14, 2013  ·  9:58AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – As much as the rest of this season for the Los Angeles Lakers is about Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, Steve Nash and Metta World Peace, the responsibility for how the Lakers finish sits squarely on the shoulders of one Mike D’Antoni.

The Lakers’ coach lost the cloak of Kobe Bryant, who is recovering from Saturday surgery to repair his torn Achilles and will be out for at least the next six months. D’Antoni no longer has the option of allowing Bryant to answer for the Lakers basketball sins this season. He can’t ease into the background as Bryant explains away one of the great botched chemistry experiments in pro sports history.

All of that internal security from doubters, both near and far, evaporated with just over three minutes to play Friday night at Staples Center, when Bryant’s season came to an abrupt end.

This season’s defining moment will come without Bryant in uniform, it could come as early as tonight’s showdown with the San Antonio Spurs (9:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV), with D’Antoni clearly at the controls of a team he had no says so in building after taking over for Mike Brown in November.

The style disconnect that has existed all season can no longer be used as an excuse, not with both Howard and Gasol playing their old selves in recent weeks. Nash is a non-factor and has been for much of the season, due to injuries, and World Peace is going to bring the same frenetic energy he always does, regardless of who is and is not in uniform.

D’Atnoni is now the wild card. Can he cajole this team into the playoffs, making good on Bryant’s guarantee, and ensure that they make the noise Bryant swore they would once they got in? D’Antoni’s future with the Lakers depends on it. D’Antoni has a chance to reintroduce himself to this team in ways that he simply could not when Bryant was at the center of all things.

Unlike some, I don’t blame D’Antoni for pushing Bryant too hard, playing him a merciless amount of minutes as the Lakers clawed their way back into playoff contention after the All-Star break. There’s enough of Southland bashing of D’Antoni, Lakers’ owner Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak to fill every minutes of every day until Bryant returns, and you know he’s coming back from this.

Bryant was in the midst of a seven-game stretch where he was averaging 46 physically taxing minutes a night trying to rescue a team that plenty of us feel has been mismanaged since Bernie Bickerstaff‘s brief tenure at the helm, he bridged the gap between Brown and D’Antoni. Even a freak injury like the one Bryant suffered looks a bit curious to those of us who don’t buy into the conspiracy theories.

I blame D’Antoni for dropping the ball and not being able to reign in Bryant’s wicked competitive streak at a time when it was clear the seemingly ageless wonder was laboring. I blame him for being too stubborn to adjust his own philosophy to fit the talent on the roster he inherited. Game after game Bryant was forced to carry the Lakers in ways that were really unnecessary, given the fact that remain the only team in the league with two elite 7-footers at their disposal.

Lucky for D’Antoni, he has a chance to make it all right. If can guide the Lakers past the Spurs tonight, he could set up a weekend date with Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and the Spurs. Or maybe it’s Scott Brooks, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

There is room for redemption if D’Antoni can claw his way out of this weekend’s and this season’s mess. But it has to include the Lakers finishing this playoff fight with the Utah Jazz right and following it with a playoff run as spirited as anything Bryant did during his one-man rescue of the Lakers before Friday night.

We can all agree that D’Antoni is an offensive genius and visionary in a league filled with followers. But if he can’t engineer the Lakers’ rise from this latest fall, if he can’t go back to the drawing board and pull out the motivational tactics to inspire this team, then he might very well be devoured by the Lakers’ season on the brink.

But if he wants out of Phil Jackson‘s shadow and wants to write his own chapter in Lakers’ lore, he has to step into the void now and run with it for as long as humanly possible.

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Kobe, Lakers Won’t Go Without A Fight

April 11, 2013  ·  8:10AM



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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers are a must-watch down the stretch of this season, for reasons that were ridiculously obvious during a historic (for Bryant) Wednesday night in Portland.

Bryant played the entire game, scored a season-high 47 points and finished with an unprecedented stat line as the Lakers rallied from an early 10-point deficit to beat the Trail Blazers 113-106 and move a full game ahead of the idle Utah Jazz for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoff chase with just three games to play.

The Lakers have won four out of five to continue their season-defining playoff stand, a charge led by the wicked Bryant, who torched the Blazers with 47 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals — filling the box score in a way that no player before him has. (He also outdueled Portland Rookie of the Year favorite Damian Lillard, who was spectacular himself with 38 points and nine assists.)

Whether the Lakers make the playoffs or not, Kobe is going to make sure their final three games are played with an intensity and at a pace that is playoff-worthy. That’s just who he is and has been his entire NBA career. There have been times when his individual drive and focus have been detrimental to his team (early in his career for sure and again later, when he and Shaquille O’Neal battled for control of the team). There’s no Phil Jackson around this time to balance the scales.

All that said, there is no player I’d rather watch under these extreme circumstances. The Lakers’ season goes into the category as one of the greatest crimes against the game if a crew with Kobe, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash doesn’t find its way into the postseason.

Would it have been nice to see the same sense of urgency in December that we all saw last night? Of course. In or out the postseason, a CSI crew will be needed to comb through the scattered wreckage of the Lakers’ regular season. There’s no way it was supposed to go down the way it has.

Kobe’s fingerprints will be all over the wreckage, along with those of Howard, Gasol, Nash, Jim Buss, Mitch Kupchak and just about anyone else inside the organization you want to throw in the mix.

Even after Bryant saved the Lakers’ bacon in Portland, the reviews seemed somewhat mixed from some of his teammates, per my main man Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com:

“It’s bittersweet,” Pau Gasol said when asked about Bryant’s dominating performance against the Blazers, in which he played all 48 minutes in a non-overtime road game for the first time in his career. “Because, I think it’s spectacular and it’s very impressive and it’s remarkable to be able to play 48 minutes and score 47 points. That’s incredible. On the other hand, I’m a player that likes to see a little bit more ball movement and better balance. I’ve always been [like that]. That’s just how I perceive this game.

“But again, he was incredible tonight. He scored a tremendous amount of points that I never scored in my life. So, like I said, it was very impressive and it’s not something that you do every night, of course.”

It wouldn’t be necessary every night if the Lakers had worked these issues out earlier in the season. They’ve been riding this roller coaster since training camp, with established veterans trying to sort out their roles — first under Mike Brown and since those first five games under Mike D’Antoni. (more…)

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The Coaching Crunch: On Thin Ice!

April 9, 2013  ·  1:15PM



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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Eye contact in a timeout huddle means little to the casual observer.

NBA players do all sorts of things in timeout huddles other than locking into their coach and hanging on every word. Sometimes it means something when they stare off into the distance. And other times it means nothing.

But for a large number of coaches heading into the great (contractual) unknown at season’s end, that connection between coach and player(s) is of immense importance.

It could mean the difference between a contract extension, a new contract or no contract, depending on how certain teams finish the regular season and postseason — provided some of these coaches make it that far.

The list of coaches looking over their shoulders as the regular season winds to a close is long and filled with notable names:

DOUG COLLINS, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

How many coaches of lottery-bound teams get to decide their own fate? Collins might be the only one in the league right now other than Minnesota’s Rick Adelman, who will make his own decision based on things other than basketball. That exhausted look on his face most nights is a reflection of a clearly exasperated coach dealing with a situation that turned a promising, young team last season upside down this season when Andrew Bynum came to town via an offseason trade.

The Sixers hit rock bottom in February and Collins couldn’t contain himself, venting his frustration for all the world to see and hear. But they’ve actually rebounded a bit lately, going 6-4 in their last 10 games and doing whatever they can to finish the season on a somewhat positive note.

His fourth year is already set. The Sixers’ front office wants him back. And they’ll need a steady, veteran coach to guide them out of the mess that the Bynum trade unleashed upon the organization and the fans. Collins is on thin ice only if he wants to be.

TY CORBIN, UTAH JAZZ

Corbin is one of several coaches whose future is tied directly to his team’s finish in the regular season. Make the playoffs, serve as the sacrificial first-round fodder for the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder and there is reason to believe that Corbin can cajole more out of this group next season.

And with just one season left on his contract, playoffs or not, the Jazz might not shake things up in the coaching ranks at a time when the roster is in such flux — Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap‘s pending free agency (among others) and the future of young bigs Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter.

Corbin’s task has always been daunting in following a legend like Jerry Sloan. But Corbin has handled it about as well as you would expect from a guy who was thrust into an impossible situation.

MIKE D’ANTONI, LOS ANGELES LAKERS

The ice beneath D’Antoni’s feet won’t break this season, even if the Lakers miss the playoffs. There has already been too much turmoil, upheaval and loss for one season. But how would you like to work under the extreme pressure that D’Antoni will have to this summer and next season if the Lakers do miss out on that eighth and final spot in the West?

If the Lakers land in the lottery and the blame game kicks off in earnest, D’Antoni will be third or fourth in the firing line, behind Jim Buss, Mitch Kupchak and Dwight Howard (in whatever order you’d like). Having the unfettered support of the Lakers’ two most important players — Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash — certainly aids D’Antoni’s cause.

Still, if things come apart in Los Angeles this summer, D’Antoni could be one of two NBA coaches in the city walking around on cracked ice.

VINNY DEL NEGRO, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Del Negro has just as many detractors as he does supporters these days. Three different league executives have suggested that he’s done a much better job than he gets credit for, when you consider how raw the Clippers’ frontcourt remains with youngsters Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan still coming into their own.

Del Negro’s critics quickly point out that an All-Star and one of the top 10 centers in the league is a pretty good place to start your frontcourt rotation. Plus, they say, Griffin and Jordan’s rawness has as much with Del Negro (and his staff’s) inability to polish them up as it does anything else.

The Clippers have dealt with health issues and rumored locker room drama all season, but they also kicked off the NBA’s season of win streaks with a 17-gamer early in the season that cranked expectations (on the team and Del Negro) to unattainable proportions. The only thing that might solidify Del Negro’s status is a run to the Western Conference finals … and that might work.

LARRY DREW, ATLANTA HAWKS

How does a guy spend half the season as a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate and the other half on the coaching hot list? Only in Atlanta, where the Hawks coach has been on the proverbial hot seat for the past 10 years (Mike Woodson before him and now, Drew).  He’s known since last summer, when new general manager Danny Ferry arrived, that he would spend his final season under contract on a non-stop audition.

To his credit, Drew has never once made an issue of his predicament. In fact, he’s relished the opportunity to show off his coaching chops to the rest of the league. Drew knows there could be (at minimum) a half-dozen coaching openings this summer. And anyone who has presided over playoff teams every year he’s been a coach — as Drew has — has made a compelling case for making the short list of interview candidates for any openings.

Bottom line? Drew was not Ferry’s pick as coach. And if the Hawks are going to remake themselves this summer, it makes sense that Ferry will do so with his own pick as coach.

BYRON SCOTT, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

Scott had to fist-fight Brooklyn’s P.J. Carlesimo for the final spot on this list. Carlesimo’s not on thin ice, though, he’s standing in the water. As long as Phil Jackson, Sloan and the Van Gundy brothers (Jeff and Stan) remain options, the coaching seat in Brooklyn is just a temporary perch. Scott is in a much more precarious position because of the belief that the Cavaliers are just a few healthy players (namely Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao) away from turning the corner in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.

Scott keeps finding himself in coaching situations where he has either overstayed his welcome (New Jersey and New Orleans) or failed to get his team to the next step in time (Cleveland). The Cavaliers showed him some love earlier this season by guaranteeing the final year of his contract next season. But even a financial vote of confidence like that might not stand up to the a coaching free-agent summer that will rival anything the players offer up.

If the aforementioned big names are floating around, you better believe the Cavaliers will be fishing around to see who is interested in helping guide Irving into the prime of his career.

ALSO ON THE RADAR: Mike Dunlap, Charlotte; Lawrence Frank, Detroit; Lionel Hollins, Memphis; Keith Smart, Sacramento; Randy Wittman, Washington.

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Lakers Say Future’s Clear Even Without Jerry Buss At Helm

February 19, 2013  ·  8:44PM


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The plan was put into motion years ago, in anticipation of Jerry Buss one day completely stepping aside as Lakers owner or his passing. One of his six children, Jim, would be in charge of basketball operations and another, Jeanie, would run the business side and cast the vote for the Board of Governors.

The patriarch set everything up in advance. Not only that, he set it up far enough in advance that both would be experienced in the roles before he was gone, with Jeanie now in her 14th season as executive vice president of business operations and Jim in his eighth as executive vice president of player personnel. There should not be any uncertainty moving forward.

Except that now Buss is gone and there are questions.

Part of the wondering, despite all Jerry Buss had arranged, down to how any very unlikely future sale of the controlling interest would have to work, is easy to explain: It’s the Lakers. Little things become very big deals in that alternate universe. And the passing of the smart, respected owner on Monday at age 80 is not a little thing.

It is also the timing. The Lakers are underachieving at historic levels. There has already been one coaching change, away from Mike Brown, and there are serious doubts the system of successor, Mike D’Antoni will work with this roster. The trade deadline is Thursday, though there is no indication the organization is debating a serious move that would involve taking on enough money that basketball would need to sync with business. Dwight Howard becomes a free agent in a little more than four months. This is not a time of stability on the court, and now one of the few constants, Jerry Buss, is also gone, so concern among fans increases even more.

The rocky history among the siblings, a well-known secret around the organization, is a dynamic that cannot be ignored. Specifically, as many press reports have noted in as delicate of terms as possible in this time of sympathy for the family, Jeanie and Jim have not gotten along.

And now they are the primary partners determining the future of the Lakers.

Monday, after the death had been announced, John Black, the vice president of public relations for the team, and family spokesman Bob Steiner held a news conference. They answered questions on what happened long ago (favorite Jerry Buss memories), what had just happened (some details of his passing) and what will happen next. They projected the image of a seamless transition.

“If it’s a basketball-operations decision, it’ll be Jim,” Black said.

But, a reporter suggested, doesn’t the business side play into that as well?

Black and Steiner paused.

“It was re-emphasized to John and I this morning,” Steiner said, “that basketball people will make the basketball decisions.”

They were pressed again: What happens if the basketball decisions start impacting the overall business, as can obviously happen?

“Jim Buss understands the business element, Jeanie understands basketball,” Steiner said. “They will work together. I don’t know, does that answer the question?… I just want to re-iterate that they are their father’s children. They do understand the business and the sports elements.”

The departments were separate yet connected for years, just as with every team, only with Jerry Buss available to step in as the final word. That does not exist anymore. There are two people who may at some point be called on to make one decision.

There may even be three people – Jeanie is engaged to Phil Jackson. That could become an additional factor in the thinking in business ops and what basketball moves should be funded beyond the budget.

While Jerry Buss had said for years that Jeanie had final say over her departments for many years, he estimated in 2010 that Jim was in charge of all things basketball about 80 percent of the time. That number obviously increased the past couple seasons, as Jerry stopped attending games as his health worsened and increasingly moved away from day-to-day operations, though still presumably willing to share an opinion on major roster decisions such as trading for Howard or the 2009 extension for Pau Gasol.

Buss said nearly three years ago his responses to questions from Jim were usually along the lines of “Do what you think is best.” He wanted his son to be in control. It just may not have always been the case. Jim, after all, insisted in early November that Brown would not take the fall for a bad start, just before Brown took the fall in early-November for a bad start.

Jim Buss didn’t have to make such a strong statement that Brown was safe. He doesn’t do many interviews and so it wouldn’t have been unusual for him to do one then. But to say Brown would be staying, to soon fire Brown, and to bring in D’Antoni to implement the closest thing to Showtime in the current NBA all pointed to Jerry Buss getting involved.

Now, the patriarch is gone. There is Jim Buss with general manager Mitch Kupchak, and Jeanie Buss, and there is a plan.

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Starving Lakers: Yo Quiero A Win!

January 12, 2013  ·  12:56PM

HANG TIME, Texas – There had already been plenty of unfathomable events in the Lakers’ season:

• Firing head coach Mike Brown after a 1-4 start.

• Collapsing down the stretch in a pair of horrible losses at home to Indiana and Orlando.

• Getting whipped in Cleveland.

• Any time that Dwight Howard steps to the free-throw line.

But then came Friday night and the height of absurdity when the announcement informed fans at Staples Center that they’d all get a free taco “if the Lakers win and hold their opponent under 100 points.”

At that moment, 2:05 left in the third quarter, the Lakers were trailing the Thunder 90-68.

So maybe it was just hunger pangs gnawing away inside Magic Johnson when he blurted out on ESPN:

“It’s over for my Lakers — no playoffs, no nothing.”

It seems the Earl Clark Era had a short shelf life and the news keeps going from bad to worse for the would-be challengers to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the rest of the real deal from OKC.

The Lakers announced that Jordan Hill will miss the rest of the season with a hip injury.

While Hill was averaging just 6.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, the bedraggled Lakers, who are also playing without Howard (shoulder) and Pau Gasol (concussion), can hardly afford to be without any of their parts as they continue their heavy lifting job — or fantasy quest — of trying to get back into the Western Conference playoff picture.

Hill told our man Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times that he took the news personally:

“I feel like I let down the team,” said Hill. “I let down the fans.”

According to the Lakers, Hill was examined by team doctor Steve Lombardo and hip specialist Dr. Jason Snibbe Friday and underwent an anthrogram test. The test revealed “loose fragments in addition to a possible labral tear” in the hip, which will require surgery, the team said.

Hill was hurt Sunday against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center.

“Andre Miller drove baseline and Kobe [Bryant], trying to go back and guard him, he accidentally stepped on my foot,” he said. “Like, I stayed in one spot but my hip kept going. It kind of pulled the joint out.”

Hill will get a second opinion before setting a date for the procedure but he noted it’s inevitable.

“I definitely need surgery. It’s definitely mandatory,” said the Lakers forward/center. “I have fragments floating around that need to be out.”

The recovery period should take all the way through to the summer.

The question is whether that’s enough time for the entire Lakers organization to recover from their troubles.

Of course, Lakers owner Jim Buss had a slightly different view, as expressed this week during a radio interview. “How can you not believe in this team?” he said.

Well, six losses in a row, seven in eight games and the No. 8 spot in the West standings fading quickly in the rearview mirror.

There wouldn’t seem to be much help coming from over the horizon, even with a team that has only 14 players — one under the maximum on its roster. The Lakers already have a payroll of roughly $100 million and a luxury tax bill of $30 million.

The Lakers have not been this bad (15-21) since the 1993-94 season when a 15-year-old Bryant was still playing at Lower Merion (Pa.) High.

Next up are home games with the Cavs, Bucks and then a Thursday night showdown against the Heat that was supposed to be a preview of the The Finals.

“I don’t have to look to know we’re in a heap of …” coach Mike D’Antoni said before Friday night’s game. “Not a good place. As long as mathematically it can be done and it’s in our hands, then I’m good.”

At least nobody will starve with all those tacos still on their hands.

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Sorting Out The Lakers’ Mess

November 13, 2012  ·  10:50AM




HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – This story gets better by the hour.

Barely a day after the Los Angeles Lakers’ stunning move to hire Mike D’Antoni instead of Phil Jackson, both men have expressed their own complete and utter shock at the choice the Lakers made.

D’Antoni, as bright a coach as the league has seen in his generation, was genuinely stunned to beat out Jackson, telling the New York Daily News all about it. His first reaction … “Are you serious?”

Jackson was blindsided as well and his version of how things went down, courtesy of our main man Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times, might serve as the most compelling narrative to date, complete with this statement:

“Saturday morning, [Lakers executive] Jim Buss called to ask if he could come and visit. I didn’t solicit or ask for the opportunity but I welcomed both him and [team executive] Mitch Kupchak into my home to discuss the possibility of my return to the Lakers as head coach,” Jackson said.

“We talked for over an hour and a half. No contractual terms were discussed and we concluded with a handshake and an understanding that I would have until Monday [today] to come back to them with my decision. I did convey to them that I did have the confidence that I could do the job. I was awakened at midnight Sunday by a phone call from Mitch Kupchak. He told me that the Lakers had signed Mike D’Antoni to a three-year agreement and that they felt he was the best coach for the team. The decision is of course theirs to make. I am gratified by the groundswell of support from the Laker fans who encouraged my return and it is the principal reason why I considered the possibility.”

It’s a fitting next step in a saga that promises to provide headlines and plot twists between now and whenever the Lakers’ season ends. That might be in the first or second round of the playoffs for the third straight season or perhaps it ends later, provided the masses of fans and pundits are wrong and the D’Antoni-in-Los Angeles experiment actually works.

Buss and the Lakers better be right on this one. Because it’s clear they played Jackson for a fool, undercutting him before he could react to an offer that technically was never made. It’s a public and disgraceful play by the Lakers and absolutely no way to treat a coach of Jackson’s stature. It’s also a move that could backfire on the Lakers even worse than the Brown hire.

While we wait for this thing to play out, we’re left to continue our deconstruction of the carnage that was the Lakers’ firing and hiring process, both of which seemed to have been done in extreme haste.

We’ve heard Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol‘s feelings about D’Antoni and what they hope becomes of this team in the near future. And we’ve read Kobe Bryant’s 53 words of wisdom on Facebook (complete with the “Mamba Out” sign off). We love the part where he tells us all that despite of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, the Lakers will be fine defensively and he cannot wait to get started with D’Antoni.

You’ll have to forgive me (and I’m not speaking for everyone here at the hideout on this) for being fed up with the complete and utter arrogance of not only Bryant, but also the Lakers’ front office. Bryant issued similar love for Brown and his staff, eventually, after he got over the sting of not being consulted on Jackson’s replacement. And we all know how that played out.

The Lakers can tell whatever white lies they want to make themselves feel better about the way this went down. But don’t expect me to swallow any more of it. Ill will between Jackson and the Lakers’ front office should never affect what is best for the team, the franchise and its devoted fans. If the Lakers really believe D’Antoni is the best choice, he wouldn’t be nearly as surprised as he is.

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Jim Buss Back Under the Microscope

November 10, 2012  ·  2:30AM





The funny part Friday was how Pau Gasol said Mike Brown being fired as Lakers coach sent a direct message to players that it’s time to step up now. Because losing four of five to the Thunder in the second round, then losing to the shorthanded Mavericks and undermanned Trail Blazers, then starting 0-3 for the first time in 34 years apparently wasn’t message enough.

Gasol is right about one thing: This just became a lot more about the roster and not the coach, especially if the almighty Phil Jackson is the successor to the man who succeeded him. It was about the players all along, really, only most people were in such a rush to pin the 2012 playoffs on newcomer Brown that they didn’t note master motivator Jackson got the same result a year earlier with the same sludge of poor focus and energy. Now, it really is time to step up.

What no one within the Lakers would – or could – say is that it just became about Jim Buss too. He is the son of the owner of the head of basketball operations as executive vice president of player personnel, with heavy input from general manager Mitch Kupchak. With his father no longer involved in day-to-day affairs, and rarely using veto powers on even major decisions like coaching moves, Buss is the one ultimately responsible for hiring Brown and then giving Brown five games to sort through many problems when it was obvious to all the 2012-13 Lakers would need transition time.

It doesn’t help that Buss is coming from a very unpopular place with fans, whether he cares or not. He is not Jerry Buss, beloved for bankrolling Lakers championships over decades, and he got into the front office of one of the marquee franchises in sports because of bloodlines, not a skill for talent evaluation. It was Jim Buss who was perceived as the driving force to rid the organization of any connection to Jackson and his domineering personality, including giving little consideration for Brian Shaw to become the successor because Shaw had been an assistant on Jackson’s staff, even though players openly hoped Shaw would get the promotion.

Fairness time, though. If Buss, the son, gets the blame for all that has gone wrong the last few years, and he has, then he gets the credit for what has gone right. Dwight Howard is a Laker. Steve Nash is a Laker. Jackson may be a Laker again. That’s a lot of improbable victories around the same time. Buss is also the exec who championed drafting Andrew Bynum out of high school in 2005, stayed the course when Bynum wobbled along with immaturity and injury, refused to budge when Kobe Bryant screamed for Bynum to be traded, and finally turned the investment into a better center, Howard.

The particulars of Buss’ actual role, compared to the work of Kupchak, will probably never be known. That is how it generally works – an owner or team president, sometimes with no basketball training, will push the button on a trade or a contract or a coaching hire and the GM will take the hit it the outcome is bad. This would be especially true in the case of Kupchak, as professional as they come. No way he ever outs one of the bosses for a decision gone wrong.

When Bryant tried to blast his way out of town, Kupchak took the grief. When the Lakers kept Bryant and got championship good again, Kupchak received little public credit. It’s a little like that now with the executive vice president of player personnel, with the obvious difference that he cannot be fired as a Buss. The son is essentially in the job as long as he wants it.

If the Lakers hire Jackson, and developments were clearly headed in that direction as soon as Kupchak said at the Friday press conference that it would be “negligent not to be aware he’s out there,” also known as “Of course we’ll be in contact,” then Buss will have made another popular decision. Brown out, Jackson closer to being in, a 101-77 win over the Warriors with an actual sustained effort – it was a nice Friday for fans and at least some corners of the locker room. It was a start on the recovery.

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The Mike Brown Question: Why Now?

November 9, 2012  ·  4:31PM

The Lakers’ front office does not do knee-jerk, so news Friday that Mike Brown has been fired as coach after a 1-4 start is a strong signal that management has been considering the drastic move for at least a few days, knowing that a replacement would have to be lined up. This isn’t the usual situation of a bad team that can promote an interim guy to get through the season. The Lakers still want to — need to — win this year.

This also has to mean Brown began the season wounded and that the Buss family – owner Jerry and his son, Jim, the head of basketball operations – has had doubts about Brown at least since the second-round loss to the Thunder in May.

Five games — with Dwight Howard still not at 100 percent after a serious back injury, with Steve Nash sidelined by a leg injury, with Kobe Bryant playing on a very sore foot, with the entire organization knowing this was going to take time — is not enough time to judge what Brown could have done with this title contender at full strength. The most heated Brown detractor in the panicking fan base — and there is about a million-way tie for the lead — could not disagree. The offense has labored badly, but Nash’s absence obviously slowed the development. The defense has regressed, but Howard had a limited preseason and is still recovering.

If the Lakers were going to fire Brown now, they might as well have done it in the summer and avoided the in-season mess and transition. Nothing was going wrong (except for Nash going down) that the front office didn’t know could go wrong.

There is no way Jim Buss meant it when he gave Brown the dreaded vote of confidence after 1-4, telling ESPNLosAngeles.com that, “I have no problems with Mike Brown at all. He just works too hard and he’s too knowledgeable for this to be happening.” The Buss backing was either a historic level of non-truthing or there was a startling change of direction that would likely come only with the red phone ringing and Jerry Buss (who leaves day-to-day basketball ops to Jim and general manager Mitch Kupchak) on the other end. Indeed, TNT’s David Aldridge has reported that Brown’s people believe the decision came directly from Jerry Buss.

The timing is curious and filled with twists. One of the strangest is that Brown may ultimately have done himself in with the lone win.

Sunday night, the lid of Staples Center is about to be pushed off by the angst of an 0-3 start. The Lakers are up on the Pistons by 36 points. The lead is cut to 24 and Brown rushes Bryant, Howard and Steve Blake, Nash’s replacement as the starting point guard, back in with 8:55 left in the fourth quarter. Bryant had already been playing big minutes — and remember, only three players in the league put in more time  than he did last season. His foot was an obvious problem. But in he went. It was 0-3 talking.

The rest of the Lakers were thinking about June, but Brown’s moves were being dictated by the first three games of the season. With a 24-point lead, with 8:55 remaining, against lottery-bound Detroit. That could not have sat well with management.

It’s as if the Buss family was willing to give Brown one last chance to see if the 108-79 win over the Pistons would spark a turnaround. But when that one last chance ended in a 95-86 loss to the Jazz on Wednesday, Brown was done. The announcement came Friday, even though it could have come in May.

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Mike Brown Fired As Lakers Coach

November 9, 2012  ·  2:17PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The consensus is that it takes 15-20 games to really evaluate how good or bad a team is. Mike Brown didn’t get nearly that long.

USA Today’s Sam Amick was the first to report that Brown has been fired as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers after a disappointing 1-4 start.

The Lakers made it official a short time later with a terse press release:

“This was a difficult and painful decision to make,” said [general manager Mitch] Kupchak. “Mike was very hard-working and dedicated, but we felt it was in the best interest of the team to make a change at this time. We appreciate Mike’s efforts and contributions and wish him and his family the best of luck.”

Less than 48 hours ago, Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss gave Brown a vote of confidence. Either Buss was lying through his teeth, or he — or someone around him — had a serious change of heart.

According to TNT’s David Aldridge, Brown’s camp believes the decision to let him go came straight from Lakers owner Jerry Buss and not from his son, Jim, or general manager Kupchak and without any influence from Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant.

While it’s easy to blame the slow start on the Princeton offense that Brown decided to put in this summer, the Lakers actually have played better offensively (where they rank sixth through Thursday’s games) than defensively (23rd). And their problems really lie with their lack of depth; L.A.’s starting lineups — with either Steve Nash or Steve Blake – have outscored their opponents by 35 points over their five games.

But ultimately, it was Brown that took the fall.

Early speculation on possible coaches to replace Brown centers on former Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, former Lakers assistant (currently with the Indiana Pacers) Brian Shaw, former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and, most prominently, former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. But Aldridge reports that the Lakers are not seriously considering Jackson.

Current Lakers assistant Bernie Bickerstaff will take the reins on an interim basis when the Lakers host the Golden State Warriors tonight. According to Aldridge, the Lakers are still working on a list of possible replacements. Bickerstaff may or may not be on that list.

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