Brian Shaw speaks up about not getting the Los Angeles Lakers job – NBA Update
Brian Shaw was the one, most likely candidate to replace the retiring legend Phil Jackson as Los Angeles Lakers head coach, when the playoffs were still going on. Fast forward a month or so, Mike Brown has replaced Phil Jackson
and Brian Shaw finds himself as an assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers.
So how did that happen?
Shaw sat down to give a radio interview recently and opened up a little on how things went down, although he refused to mention any names it was pretty clear who he was talking about.
According to Brian Shaw the “power(s) that were making decisions, felt team needed a change of culture, new voice, head in new direction.”
The “power” in this case is one Jim Buss, the son of Jerry Buss, owner of Los Angeles Lakers. Jim holds a high post in the Lakers front office and is increasingly believed to be the de facto decision maker at the franchise who
can overrule General Manager Mitch Kupchak while the aging Jerry Buss doesn’t really take an active role in the management process any more.
Since Jim has come into the organization, he has pursued his own agenda, which is often against what the players and coaches are rooting for. He had issues with former coach Phil Jackson, who revealed he hadn’t talked to the executive
in around a year when he was retiring.
He also doesn’t see eye to eye with Kobe Bryant, the star player of the team whose wish to have Andrew Bynum traded have repeatedly been refused by Jim Buss. It comes as no surprise that when Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, the two
most senior members of the Lakers playing staff, publicly backed Brian Shaw to take the job Jim Buss turned elsewhere.
Buss was widely criticized in the media after he hired former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown instead of Shaw, until his father came to his defence. Shaw didn’t name Buss, nor did he say he didn’t agree with the decision the
Lakers management took. He did however say that he thought he deserved a bit more respect in the handling of the situation.
The man has been with the Los Angeles Lakers for a long time now. He was part of all five of their NBA World Championship wins in the last decade or so, first as a player and then as a coach. If you reward people like that by not
even informing them of your decision, Shaw found out on TV that Mike Brown had been hired instead of him, there’s definitely something going astray in the franchise.
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