Turns out that really was a death stare.
The 1-4 Los Angeles Lakers, with a re-tooled starting line-up and virtually no bench help, have fired Mike Brown. Brown was just starting year two of a four-year, $18 million deal… which means he’s getting about $13 million or so to do nothing.
Let’s be honest here… Mike Brown was never the right guy for that job. But this is what happens when you don’t let your basketball guy, GM Mitch Kupchack, do the hiring and firing. Mike Brown was Jim Buss’ guy.
The irony is that Jerry Buss’ son who runs the day-to-day operations of the franchise, Jim – and not Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak – was the primary advocate in the hiring of Brown and the firing of him. Kupchak was partial to Rick Adelman as a replacement, sources said. Nevertheless, the Buss family lost patience with the team’s sluggish start to the Princeton offense, and didn’t accept the excuses of a weak bench with such a star-studded starting five of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash.
New team, new offense, Steve Nash is out with a broken foot, and Brown got five games to get it all straight. Not that the Princeton offense was the right call for the Lakers. It’s a terrible offense for a team with an isolation guy like Kobe. The entire thing is based on moving, passing, and backdoor cuts. Kobe’s not going to change his game for that kind of system.
Jimmy Buss couldn’t wait to Febreeze every scent of Jackson out of the Lakers, which is why they hired Brown in the first place. Now there are calls to bring him back. I think Jackson will be happy to sit back and smugly watch the rich little punk that fired him flounder in his absence.
This seems like a good time to bring this piece back up too:
The Lakers’ front office is an uncommunicative, rudderless fiasco, and the unrest and paranoia that have been festering for years threaten to derail the team’s plans to ride Bryant to his sixth NBA title while they still can. And much of it can be traced to the growing influence of executive vice president Jim Buss, the owner’s bon vivant son, who has helped transform a great franchise into a steaming pool of nepotism and nincompoops
So yes, the Celtics are struggling, but Boston fans can lean on a little Schadenfreude to life our spirits. We’re going through a rough patch, but we’re not the Lakers. Jim Buss is ruining them, and he’s doing it in spectacular fashion.
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