Brian Shaw reveals bias against Phil Jackson in the Los Angeles Lakers front office – NBA Update
Brian Shaw, the former assistant coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, has revealed how the new management of Los Angeles Lakers was completely biased against former coach Phil Jackson.
Jackson is a legendary NBA coach and won a total of 11 NBA World Champions. Five of those came during his time with Los Angeles in two separate spells. However, despite his unparalleled achievements, the management at the Los Angeles
franchise was completely biased against him during his last days at the club.
The key reason for that was the ascendancy of Jimmy Buss through the ranks. Jimmy, who is the son of owner Jerry Buss, never saw eye to eye with Jackson and had a reputation of being arrogant and troublesome.
Brian was up for the post of head coach when Jackson retired this summer, and he even had the endorsements of senior Lakers Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher.
However, he didn’t get the job.
Now, he has revealed that Phil warned him their association could work against the former assistant coach.
“Phil let me know going into the interview [with the Lakers] for me to almost disassociate myself from him, that anything that I said about him or the triangle system would hurt me because of his lack of relationship with Jimmy
Buss,” Shaw told Sports Illustrated.
Brian, who also played for the Lakers under Phil Jackson, further revealed that during his interview with Lakers bosses, the bias against Phil Jackson became evident. As a loyal person, Shaw stood up for his former coach and pointed
out that he had been enormously successful for the Lakers.
That naturally didn’t go down to well with the management.
“There were some things that were said that I won’t really get into,” Shaw said. “It was kind of bashing Phil Jackson, that I just refused to just sit and listen to. And that’s when I said, ‘Hey, I love Phil Jackson. I appreciate
everything that we’ve all been able to accomplish under him. We’ve all prospered since he’s been the coach here….”
Shaw’s revelations do not exactly come as a surprise. Jimmy Buss is known for his antics in NBA and is already a despised figure in the hearts of Lakers fans. He grudge against super star shooting guard Bryant is well documented,
and has often been found going against the 5 time NBA World Champions’ wishes.
The major cause of concern for Lakers fans is that Jerry Buss is now too old to take care of the day to day running of the franchise and Mitch Kupchak, the General Manager, doesn’t really have much power. Jimmy Buss, by virtue
of being the son of the owner, has consolidated considerable power in the Lakers management and Los Angeles are now set to go in the direction he wished to choose.
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