FIRED: The Lakers Fire Their Coach, and a player Is on the Move
Despite a team loaded with talent, including Kobe Bryant, the Lakers fired coach Mike Brown following a 1-4 start.Credit…Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
Howard Beck’s
Nov. 9, 2012
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking for a powerful beacon to guide their dazzling lineup in a city controlled by star power. That search could stop at the doorway of a philosophizing legend with an ungainly gait for the third time in 13 years.
The Lakers fired Coach Mike Brown on Friday after a 1-4 start to the season and began compiling a list of potential replacements. The list is expected to include Mike D’Antoni, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Shaw and Nate McMillan, but no name holds more intrigue than that of Phil Jackson.
Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships between 2000 and 2010, left the franchise last year, in part because of health concerns and general fatigue. At the time, he sent signals that he was probably done for good.
But Jackson, who turned 67 in September, has regained his strength and his energy after a year in retirement, and after operations to repair knee and hip problems, according to friends. There is no certainty that he would return, or that the Lakers will ask, but the mere possibility had fans and commentators buzzing Friday.
The fact that the Lakers’ front office would not dismiss Jackson as a candidate only fueled the speculation.
“When there’s a coach like Phil Jackson, one of the all-time greats, and he’s not coaching, I think we’d be negligent not to be aware that he’s out there,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “We’re putting together a list and an attack plan.”
Expectations are always high in Los Angeles, but they skyrocketed this summer after Kupchak acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, pairing them with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to form one of the most talented lineups in N.B.A. history. There was talk of a 70-win season and, of course, a 17th championship banner.
But the Lakers stumbled through the first two weeks of the season and have struggled to adapt to the Princeton offense, installed by Brown’s top assistant, Eddie Jordan. Injuries have also slowed their development. Nash played just a game and a half before sustaining a leg injury, and he will be out for a few more weeks.
Bryant is playing through a foot injury and has been unable to practice. And Howard, though he is averaging 22.4 points and 9.6 rebounds, is still regaining his stamina after having back surgery in April.
As of Friday morning, the Lakers had the worst record in the Western Conference.
In a Thursday interview with ESPN-Los Angeles, Jim Buss, the Lakers’ executive vice president, gave Brown, his handpicked candidate in 2011, a vote of confidence, saying, “I have no problems with Mike Brown at all,” and concluding, “I just have to be patient.”
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