The Arrogant, Entitltled World Champion Los Angeles Lakers

[Bklyn]

only your first few posts are moderated, to make sure you're not spamming. Soon you can post random fuckery, instantly, to your heart's content.

[jeffa]

Shooooot ... just posted in the clipjoint for a rant ... remove those if you wish...

[Johnette's Daddy]

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/artic ... son,20380/

Career Highlights Of Phil Jackson

Thirteen-time NBA champion Phil Jackson, the man who most thoroughly embodies the idea of the basketball guru, is saying he’ll hang it up now that his Lakers have been eliminated from the playoffs. We look back on his life and career:

*1945: Born in Deer Lodge, MT, where all kids could do for fun was wear suits and pace back and forth

*1963: Birth of Michael Jordan

*1975: While discussing plays during a timeout, Jackson decides he’d rather stay there on the sidelines than go back in and play

*1990: Jackson first implements the triangle offense with his Bulls team, the triangle being comprised of three Bulls players staying the hell out of the way of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen

*1992: After winning back-to-back titles, Jackson comes up with the idea of doing it again the next year

*2004: Has the pleasure of seeing Karl Malone and Gary Payton lose in the Finals

*2004: After a long day of heated contract negotiations, goes home and fucks his boss's daughter repeatedly

*2011: Jackson ascends to a higher plane of coaching in a bright flash of pure white energy

[Johnette's Daddy]

Coach selection, and the Lakers' future, is in owners' hands

Jerry Buss and Jerry West had a Midas touch in the day. Now Jim Buss, likely in consultation with his father and with GM Mitch Kupchak, might have the final say on key decision.

Regime change in Lakerdom …

If there's more going on than finding Phil Jackson's successor — which should go better after having gone through it before — the Lakers formally started their coaching search Tuesday when General Manager Mitch Kupchak met with Jerry and Jim Buss.

Actually, at this crossroads, whoever runs the team, be it all three … or Jim and Mitch … or just Jim … means more than the coach, but they still need one.

First, of course, they had to figure out the candidates.

Since they're not issuing updates, we had to figure it out, hopefully, by ourselves.

Out: Byron Scott, Nate McMillan, Doc Rivers.

Leading candidates: Rick Adelman, Mike Dunleavy.

Others: Brian Shaw, Chuck Person.

Both Lakers assistants got interviews — but were told something that led them to interview for other jobs, with the team's permission.

And in a blockbuster, The Times just learned there's a new candidate: Pat Riley.

(Not really. I made it up to see if any ESPN guys will claim it as a scoop in two days.)

The Lakers were once the managerial gold standard, with Jerry Buss' vision and Jerry West as in-house legend and basketball boss of bosses.

Now Buss defers largely to his son Jim, who, let's hope, checks with West's protege, Kupchak.

Not surprisingly, given Jim's inclinations — remember bringing Rudy Tomjanovich out of retirement as the game's highest-paid coach in 2004? — this started as a star search.

Unfortunately, as soon as word got out, the stars got big extension offers and re-upped where they were.

As a league official said of Lonnie Cooper, the agent representing Rivers and McMillan:

"Lonnie Cooper has a cottage industry going with coaches the Lakers wanted."

McMillan, whom Portland had left dangling as his contract ran out, suddenly got a two-year, $10-million extension in March.

Rivers, expected to take a year off, suddenly signed a five-year, $35-million extension with Boston.

Scott, of course, is on a four-year, $18.5-million deal in Cleveland, although the Lakers kept pining for him until they realized the Cavaliers won't be letting him leave.

Not that the greatest NBA coach ever could be expected to turn around the Lakers, not after they just went down in flames with Jackson, certainly one of the greatest.

The owner(s) have to make a whole set of decisions that will determine the Lakers' future, hopefully with the advice of the basketball people:

• With a roster geared to running the triangle offense, do they keep it, abandon it or transition out of it?

• If they leave the triangle, which doesn't require a traditional point guard, who's the point guard?

• Do they make a major move or wait for Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and/or Deron Williams in 2012?

• Do they adopt a salary-cap strategy geared to the end of Kobe Bryant's contract in 2014, when B-B-B-Blake Griffin could be on the market?

At this point, it's hard to tell just what Jerry has told Jim about relying on his professionals.

It wasn't something Jim arrived knowing in the '90s, when he told Sports Illustrated's Franz Lidz:

"Evaluating basketball talent is not too difficult.

"If you grabbed 10 fans out of a bar and asked them to rate prospects, their opinions would be pretty much identical to those of the pro scouts."

If Jim then knew more about the opinions of people in bars than the real process, by 2005 he would play a meaningful role in drafting Andrew Bynum.

It was the way to go if greatness was the goal — Jerry Buss' No. 1 virtue as owner — but it was as daring as it was wise.

Looking beyond Jackson's return on a three-year coaching deal, they took a 7-foot high school kid over, quote, safe picks Sean May and Fran Vazquez, who wouldn't change any equations, if they made it.

May bombed and Vazquez never left Spain.

Dark horse that Bynum was with his Andrew-Who? prep career and annual injuries, the Lakers hit it big.

In any case, they're a long way from Showtime, the Jerrys and the old notion of Laker Family.

Having just turned a $25-million to $50-million profit, they stripped down for the NBA lockout, laying off most of the team's scouts, the entire training staff except Gary Vitti, the video guys and Rudy Garciduenas, their equipment manager for 28 years.

So much for the Lakers' hearts. Now to see about their minds.

[Chuck Nevitt]

Bynum now has a huge thug/bitch reputation. But he's a healthy thug/bitch.

Kobe has 200 playoff games on the odometer. Protecting him and hoping his competitiveness would rub off on the rest of the team didn't work.

Is Fisher gone?

[Owlman]

not gone, moved to back-up. They need a quicker guard

[Johnette's Daddy]

Lakers owner Jerry Buss declined to provide a definitive timetable on hiring a replacement for Phil Jackson as the Lakers coach, but he said the organization is "very close" to finalizing its search.

"I don’t know exactly when but a week is a long time," Buss said in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday with Playboy Radio's Michael Eaves and Bonnie Jill Laflin on Sirius/XM Radio. "I should say that."

Buss and executives Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak met last Tuesday to draw up an official list, but The Times' Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner have reported it's possible interviews with candidates might not happen until the first week of June. The possibilities, Bresnahan and Turner and other media outlets have reported, include Rick Adelman, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Shaw, Chuck Person and Mike Brown.

Meanwhile, players including Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Luke Walton have publicly advocated for Shaw to get the position, arguing his familiarity with the personnel as a Lakers assistant coach and willingness to directly and constructively criticize players will help ease the transition period in the post-Jackson era.

Buss didn't talk about any candidates specifically, but he made it clear he wouldn't consult any players about whom to hire as the next coach.

"Obviously, we have to select somebody who has a reputation that players would be happy with," Buss said. "But to ask a direct player to select a particular coach, that’s general manager territory. That’s out of the player domain."

I will have more on this story soon at latimes.com/sports.

Only in L.A. does the owner break sports news on Playboy Radio.

[Johnette's Daddy]

Mike Brown.

[T Dot O Dot]

Mike Brown.

4 years 18-million according to reports

[Bklyn]

Interesting. He must've interviewed very well. I don't hate the hire, for sure. I do wonder about offensive sets. Pau demonstrated this post season that he is not physically able to bang down low for long stretches of time. He needs more pick and roll and less classic post ups.

[Chuck Nevitt]

Not sure about offense either but he comes with a strong defensive rep.

[Hizzy III]

I need a Houston Rockets thread so that my untimely rants and complaints can be more focused and indexed.

Thank you in advance.

Plus, I'll have a place to share all of those great photoshops that they come up with over at Clutchfans.

[Bklyn]

Bam!

[jeffa]

Why Mike Brown? He was not good enough for LJ but good enough for Kobe and Pau? I do not quite get it...

Lakkers to be in lottery soon ...

[Bklyn]

Maybe he was good enough for LBJ, is the point. Maybe LBJ gave too little credit to what Brown did for him and the team.

I also think Brown aced the "Kobe" questions in the interview. He at least has practice dealing successfully with a high emotional impact player on a team.

[T Dot O Dot]

Why Mike Brown? He was not good enough for LJ but good enough for Kobe and Pau? I do not quite get it...

Lakkers to be in lottery soon ...

How can you possibly compare LBJ's teammates during the Brown years to Pau, Odom & Bynum?

[UNMfan]

I am uninspired by this hire...

[Bklyn]

Maybe Magic sold high...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=a ... kers052511

(This is what happens when your fortunes are tied to the skillset of a man/cult of personality and not the result of a proven structure/process. We still have a guy named "J. Buss" making the decisions, but he may be the Khloe of the Kardashian sisters)

[Bklyn]

LOS ANGELES -- The revolving door for the Los Angeles Lakers franchise is ready to start turning.

On the same day Mike Brown agreed in principle to a four-year, $18.25 million deal to replace Phil Jackson as the next coach of the Lakers, multiple sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com that assistant general manager Ronnie Lester will not be brought back when his contract expires at the end of June.

Lester just completed his 10th season as assistant GM, serving under general manager Mitch Kupchak. The 52-year-old Lester's relationship with the team spans more than 25 years dating back to the 1984-85 season when he signed as a free agent and played the final two seasons of his injury-shortened NBA career with the Lakers, winning a championship in 1985.

He has been with the purple and gold virtually ever since, signing on as the team's primary scout for the Midwest region of the United States in 1987-88, one year after retiring because of persistent knee injuries.

Lester is credited as the scout on the front line representing the organization when the Lakers got their first hard look at the then 17-year-old Andrew Bynum at a workout in New York in 2005.

Roland Lazenby, author of "Jerry West: The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon," published by ESPN Books in 2009, first reported the Lester ouster via his Twitter account.

Apart from Lester, the Lakers have also informed more than a dozen scouts, training staff members and video staff personnel that their contracts will not be renewed when they expire at the end of June as well, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The layoffs first appeared to be a cost-cutting measure by the Lakers in light of the potential lockout that could occur July 1 if the NBA owners and players' association cannot finalize a new collective bargaining agreement by then. But, while it initially seemed like there was potential for the employees to be rehired when the possible drawn-out labor unrest is settled, the growing sense is the team is using this offseason to cut ties with the Jackson days [guys] and turn the page on the next era of Lakers basketball.

[bling]

And it just seems like he's got the potential to run afoul of Kobe... I just don't know if Kobe will respect him.