Lakers

[TripletDaddy]

Mike D sez: huh? you serious?

http://network.yardbarker.com/nba/ar...ckson/12200800

When I got the call that it was me, my first reaction was, ‘Are you serious?’”

Jackson has built his Hall of Fame career around being able to handle superstars and massive egos. In New York, trying to juggle a roster that included Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire became too much for D’Antoni, so he walked away.

[SoCalCoug]

Jim Buss is really putting himself on the line here. If the Lakers don't win championships this year and/or next year, he will forever be second-guessed in his decision not to hire Phil.

If he weren't the owner's son, he would be subject to being fired after next year if there are no championships.

I feel bad for Mitch Kupchak. I get the feeling he was pressured into having to make a very uncomfortable call to Phil the other night.

[Flystripper]

Mike D sez: huh? you serious?

http://network.yardbarker.com/nba/ar...ckson/12200800

The Lakers really screwed this up. The way that they handled this it makes it feel like Antoni is following Phil rather than following Brown which makes Antoni's job even more difficult.

[SoCalCoug]

The Lakers really screwed this up. The way that they handled this it makes it feel like Antoni is following Phil rather than following Brown which makes Antoni's job even more difficult.

It's even worse than following him - they could have had Phil, and chose D'Antoni instead.

[Flystripper]

It's even worse than following him - they could have had Phil, and chose D'Antoni instead.

I am confused by the D you put in his name

[Surfah]

Jim Buss is really putting himself on the line here. If the Lakers don't win championships this year and/or next year, he will forever be second-guessed in his decision not to hire Phil.

If he weren't the owner's son, he would be subject to being fired after next year if there are no championships.

I feel bad for Mitch Kupchak. I get the feeling he was pressured into having to make a very uncomfortable call to Phil the other night.

I was so encouraged when Bynum was traded. And then when Brown was fired. I thought Jim finally got it. That it's not him, it's the team. It's the banners. It's the rings. That is all that matters. But alas, he didn't learn a damn thing I am afraid. Mike D was always going to be there. Giving Phil until Monday and then hiring Mike D at midnight was nothing more than a move to tweak Phil. To put his sister and her boyfriend in their place. I effing hate Jim Buss.

He doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what his old man does. Pay the men to win and you win. Do Lakers fans get all bent out of sorts when the Dr. blows off the finals for a poker tournament? No. All they care about is getting to dance down Figueroa. And they love the chemist for it. They pad his pockets for it.

[TripletDaddy]

More on the hire:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/Kobe-Bryant-Steve-Nash-Dwight-Howard-Los-Angeles-Lakers-intrigued-by-chance-to-play-for-Mike-DAntoni-111212

The Lakers reacted with ample excitement and a little bewilderment Monday to their front office's surprising decision to hire D'Antoni as coach Mike Brown's replacement over Jackson, the 11-time champion who discussed the job at his home Saturday and apparently wanted to return. D'Antoni didn't even interview for the job in person, speaking to the Lakers over the phone.

If we don't win a title now, I am not signing a deal this summer ''It has been crazy, but all this stuff will just make this team stronger,'' said Howard, who has been in a Lakers uniform for about six weeks. ''Everything that we've been through so far, it's going to make us stronger, and we have to look at this as a positive situation.''

''It's been a zoo,'' said forward Antawn Jamison, a 15-year NBA veteran who played for D'Antoni on a U.S. national team. ''But as I was telling somebody, it's just a typical day here in L.A.

Two Lakers who supported both Brown and his two potential replacements weren't available in El Segundo to weigh in on the hire. Nash missed the workout while getting treatment on his injured leg, while Kobe Bryant left before it ended to share a helicopter ride home to Orange County with point guard Steve Blake, who needed an exam on his abdominal injury.

It's too soon to tell how the Buss family's latest counterintuitive move will sit with Lakers fans, who chanted ''We want Phil!'' during the club's weekend games, both victories after a 1-4 start.

WTF? WTMFF?!!!! ''Everybody had expectations about it, and they were all pretty high,'' Gasol said of Jackson's potential return. ''We all understood what Phil brings to the table ... and what he means to the city and the franchise. It just couldn't work out for whatever reason.''

The Lakers largely echoed the thoughts of Howard, who was looking forward to playing for Jackson: ''Management had to do what they felt is best for the team, and we as players have got to find a way to win.''

The rest of the NBA sat back and watched the Lakers' drama with amusement over the past two days, with Dallas owner Mark Cuban weighing in gleefully on the mess: ''I hope they have to do it again and again and again.''

Added Dwyane Wade, who has played for D'Antoni on the U.S. national team: ''He has a tough job ahead of him, but I'm sure he's excited about the opportunity that he gets to be with America's team.''

[Flystripper]

I was so encouraged when Bynum was traded. And then when Brown was fired. I thought Jim finally got it. That it's not him, it's the team. It's the banners. It's the rings. That is all that matters. But alas, he didn't learn a damn thing I am afraid. Mike D was always going to be there. Giving Phil until Monday and then hiring Mike D at midnight was nothing more than a move to tweak Phil. To put his sister and her boyfriend in their place. I effing hate Jim Buss.

He doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what his old man does. Pay the men to win and you win. Do Lakers fans get all bent out of sorts when the Dr. blows off the finals for a poker tournament? No. All they care about is getting to dance down Figueroa. And they love the chemist for it. They pad his pockets for it.

This is probably the best post in this latest saga. I agree completely.

[TripletDaddy]

The weight of expectations in LA is going to crush Mike D. Especially now that everyone knows he was hired instead of Phil. If LAL doesn't win a title this season, the LA media will destroy him. Hiring Phil was no guarantee of a title, either, but that doesn't matter. The fan perception is that Phil would have brought another title and that will be the measure by which he is judged. If the Lakers fail to win a title AND D12 leaves, don't be surprised to see Mike D fired.

How is this for a media honeymoon? Welcome to LA, Mike D, no hard feelings:

Simers: It's unanimous: Lakers' selection of Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson is wrong

If the majority opinion around here is Jim Buss is clueless, what does that make Jerry Buss and Kupchak if they are unanimous in such decision making? They think D'Antoni is a better choice than Jackson? It's understandable now why they are in hiding, obviously unable to keep straight faces.

Bresnahan: Phil Jackson gets call from Lakers and it's not what he expected

"I wish it would have been a little bit cleaner," Jackson said in a Monday night telephone interview with The Times. "It would have been much more circumspect and respectful of everybody that's involved. It seemed slimy to be awoken with this kind of news. It's just weird."

The Lakers explained their decision this way:

"After speaking with several excellent and well-respected coaching candidates, Dr. Buss, Jim and I all agreed that Mike was the right person at this time to lead the Lakers forward," Kupchak said in a statement Monday, referring to Jim Buss and also team owner Jerry Buss.

There were a handful of reasons for D'Antoni's ascension, according to a highly placed person with knowledge of the situation who was not allowed to be identified.

Jerry Buss had been incredibly animated in discussing the immediate future of the team, knowing the contract for All-Star center Dwight Howard would expire next July and cognizant he needed to do something to keep Howard interested in the Lakers.

Buss considered D'Antoni's high-scoring offense to be the wave of the future and perhaps a slight reminder of the Lakers' high-scoring past, when the franchise earned the nickname "Showtime" with such players as Magic Johnson and James Worthy in the 1980s.

"Knowing his style of play and given the current makeup of our roster, we feel Mike is a great fit," Kupchak said in the statement.

Even though Jackson's "triangle" offense was the basis for five Lakers championships, the franchise considered it too closely related to the plodding "Princeton" offense that the fired Brown tried to employ this season. But the team agonized over the decision because it knew Lakers fans would clamor for Jackson and didn't want to take a public-relations hit.

Jackson said he thought the Lakers had the personnel to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals. But he wasn't so sure they could handle the East champion. He also said no team but the Lakers would have piqued his interest in coaching again.

"It's L.A. It's the Lakers. It's the players I've been with. It's my partner's team," he said, referring to longtime companion Jeanie Buss, daughter of the Lakers owner. "It's the family business. But I have no intention of going somewhere and starting all over and coaching a team from scratch."

Plaschke: Blame starts at top for Lakers' bungling of Phil Jackson's return

Has it really been less than three years? Was it really just June 2010 when they experienced one of the greatest triumphs in franchise history with a Game 7 NBA Finals victory over the Boston Celtics? Have they really fallen this far, this fast?

Less than three years ago, the Lakers were in the discussion of the greatest franchises in the history of American professional sports. Today, they are a drifting, dysfunctional mess.

Less than three years ago, Jerry Buss was arguably the best sports owner ever. Today, his declining health, combined with his decision to delegate his power to curious son Jimmy, has left the Lakers looking uncertain, unsettled and increasingly unstable.

They allowed the NBA's greatest coach to walk away while scrubbing the organization clean of his memory. Then, when they needed him most, and when he would have returned, they refused to bring him back.

They hired a coach lacking in championship credentials, fired him just five games into his second season, then immediately replaced him with another coach lacking in championship credentials.

D'Antoni's biggest problem, of course, is that he is not Phil Jackson. This is where this latest bit of Lakers looney tunes begins. The hiring of D'Antoni late Sunday night when former coach Jackson expressly wanted the job is the sort of arrogantly tone-deaf move that has marked the baffling transfer of power from Jerry Buss to Jimmy Buss.

Like other bad decisions in the last three years, this one was made on impulse rather than insight, a gut move instead of a basketball move, a son perhaps trying to impress a father who wants the kid to still know who's boss.

It was a move like last season's stunning exiling of Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, both of whom were missed by the desultory end of the season. It was a move like the amazing $3-billion TV deal with the Time Warner Cable network, which the Lakers signed apparently without realizing how staunchly DirecTV and the Dish Network would oppose the increased fees to customers. Neither satellite TV giant is carrying the network thus far, so even Lakers employees in their own building can't watch most of the team's games.

It was also a move like last week's firing of Mike Brown without having Jackson already hired. Who does that? Who leaves a city treasure vulnerable and exposed in the middle of a season by canning a coach without having a replacement already signed up? That was Jerry Buss' call, and it was a lousy one.

All of these problems, plus the fans chanting and Kobe Bryant begging, gave Jackson plenty of leverage in this weekend's negotiations, and I'm sure he used it. The question is, did he go too far in perhaps trying to make Jimmy Buss look bad after Buss embarrassed him two years ago by firing everyone close to him? The answer is, who cares?

Hiring Jackson was the only thing that could have made sense of the Brown firing. Jackson is the only coach with the credibility to immediately convince this potential championship team that it can play like a champion.

Short of a larger ownership slice than the 4.5% that Magic Johnson was once allowed to buy, Jackson was worth every bit of the Lakers' time, money and pride. That Jimmy Buss suddenly turned to a quirky offensive mind with a losing playoff record and smoldering New York Knicks wreckage on his resume makes it seem as though Buss was angrily running from Jackson.

Jackson was a bridge while D'Antoni is a ladder, and now the Lakers have less than a full season to climb out of this morass before Dwight Howard becomes a free agent and Bryant moves to within one year of retirement and Steve Nash starts pushing 60 and they risk having to start from scratch again.

[The_Douger]

LOL@the frothed at the mouth LA media.

[Flystripper]

LOL@the frothed at the mouth LA media.

The media in this market is great. I am glad they hold teams and programs accountable for bad decisions.

[Donuthole]

I loved that movie Jerry Buss and Jim Buss starred in together. One of the best comedies of the 90s.

[Surfah]

The media in this market is great. I am glad they hold teams and programs accountable for bad decisions.

Exactly. They get it. Winning isn't a goal, it's an expectation.

[The_Douger]

The media in this market is great. I am glad they hold teams and programs accountable for bad decisions.

They just seem like jilted lovers sometimes, like they take it all super personal.

I do wish the media in SLC would hold the Jazz accountable more, instead of being a bunch of rah rah enablers.

[Surfah]

I loved that movie Jerry Buss and Jim Buss starred in together. One of the best comedies of the 90s.

Ugh. Sad, but true. The hiring of Mike D wasn't just a stab at Jeanie and Jax. It was also a twisting of the knife to the fans who were chanting "We want Phil" Sunday evening. It was Jim reminding all of us who is in control.