Opinion: Lakers: Why Michael Brown might not have been the best pick to replace Phil Jackson
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The editorial board recently paid homage to Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and his unique coaching style.
Jackson reached that pinnacle by getting players to excel in roles that complemented their strengths and those of their teammates. He viewed coaching as a process designed to instill players with championship-caliber dedication and focus -- the intangible differentiators in a league rich in talent. […] Granted, he seemed unconventional to the point of being weird, at least by NBA standards. A devotee of Zen, he gave his players weighty books to read on road trips, had them meditate before games, then sat implacably on the bench while they tried to work through their problems on the court. […] Jackson lamented this year that he couldn’t seem to get through to the players. The NBA’s population is certainly different now than it was when he became a head coach in Chicago 22 years ago. The players are younger, more athletic and more international, often having a greater financial interest in their personal brands than in their team’s. Yet Jackson has been able to mold the shifting array of personnel into teams that never had a losing record and never missed the playoffs. He was the ideal coach for a team in a fickle town that has little patience for losers.
So it seems surprising that the Buss family would replace Jackson as head coach with Mike Brown, who was fired from the Cleveland Cavaliers last year and might have trouble jibing with the Lakers’ star players, especially Kobe Bryant, who had his own ideas for who should take the job and isn’t the most diplomatic guy when he doesn’t get his way.
About this selection for the ‘most coveted and celebrated coaching job in basketball,’ Bill Plaschke writes:
Mike Brown may be a great coach. But for a franchise whose successful leaders have all possessed pedigree and star power and big-game savvy, he doesn’t seem to be a great fit. Brown guided [LeBron] James and the Cavaliers to consecutive league-best records in 2009 and 2010. But he is best known for being badly outcoached in both postseasons as the Cavaliers failed to take that top seed into the NBA Finals, failing even to survive the conference semifinals last spring, when James was accused of quitting. […] Yes, Brown is a defensive mind who helped teach James the sort of stopper skills that he has used to shut down opponents for the Miami Heat in this year’s postseason. But Brown is also the guy who butted heads with James about offense, and was openly questioned by James about substitutions, and, in the end, was dumped by the Cavaliers in an apparent effort to keep James from bolting town. And this all works for Kobe Bryant … how? Even if Bryant only has a couple of good years left, those may be the last good chances for the Lakers to win a title for a while, and shouldn’t the Buss family have taken his input?
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Kobe Bryant’s apology not good enough
-- Alexandra Le Tellier
