Getting ready for that first day of work will make anyone nervous, but imagine if the person you’re replacing is one of the greatest people to ever do your job.
Former San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Brown will be taking over for Phil Jackson as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he can’t really start his job until the lockout is over.
Brown has been running through his offense and his defense with the other Lakers’ coaches, but he’s been doing it without any players. When he was head coach in Cleveland, he had one of the NBA’s greatest players ever, LeBron James, and a bunch of other players no one will remember 10 years down the road. In L.A. he’ll get another of the NBA’s greatest, Kobe Bryant, but he’ll also get some better pieces to work with.
Brown actually compared some of his “pieces” to two very important ones he had in San Antonio. He said having Paul Gasol and Andrew Bynum was like having Tim Duncan and David Robinson. It might be a similar style, but I hope (and I’m sure Spurs fans will agree) that he wasn’t comparing them talent-wise.
“Just as important, we have a couple of bigs that are very talented in that painted area that remind me of my days in San Antonio when we had the two prolific low-post scorers there.”
So for now, Brown has to just enjoy the Southern California weather while he plays out an imaginary season in his mind. With the first two weeks of the NBA cancelled, he’s going to have to wait even longer to jump into those huge shoes he’s been waiting to fill.
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