Mike Brown to succeed Phil Jackson; Los Angeles Lakers get it wrong – Part 2
Link for Part – 1: http://www.senore.com/Mike-Brown-to-succeed-Phil-Jackson-Los-Angeles-Lakers-get-it-wrong-Part-1-a71655
Brown’s appointment is also likely to ruffle at least a faction of the players. They will see this as an appointment by Jim Buss, who doesn’t have too many friends inside the locker room. Prior to this, Buss did not grant Kobe Bryant’s wish for Andrew Bynum to be traded and a chilly reception by the senior players could be expected for Brown.
The job will be a test of Mike Brown’s motivating and man management skills. The Lakers have one of the most, if not the most, talented rosters on the league and this team did win two back to back NBA World Championships before falling apart in this year’s playoffs. During the Dallas series, the Lakers often seemed to be disinterested, lazy or plain unmotivated for the games. Motivating and getting the best out of these players, who spend their nights under the bright lights of Los Angeles and who have already achieved so much success, is going to be a really hard job for anyone.
Another dimension of his appointment which creates curiosity is the fact that Mike Brown’s 5 years in Cleveland were marred by too little end product after so much promise. His overall record is not to be questioned, but there is no denying the fact that the Cavaliers did not win an NBA World Championship, despite having the resources to achieve that feat. Time and again, Cleveland threatened, only to fall apart in the end. It didn’t happen with only one team either.
The Cavs reached the NBA Finals in 2007 and got swept by the San Antonio Spurs. After the roster was rebuilt, again around LeBron James, Mike Brown still failed to deliver the title. And the way his team crashed out in the 2010 playoffs at the hands of the Boston Celtics does not instil confidence in his abilities. The whole team, and their leader LeBron James, looked thoroughly beaten. There body language was that of a side who had given up before the final round had even begun. The whole fiasco brought so much angst and negativity that Brown ended up without a job and LeBron ended up leaving his hometown team.
How can someone with that stain on his resume be expected to set things right in a Los Angeles side, that has shown all those signs already in the Dallas series?
And how exactly is Mike Brown supposed to look Kobe Bryant, who has 5 NBA rings to Brown’s 0, in the eye and tell him “I am the boss around here, you do as you are told”? Brown doesn’t command any respect going into the job. The players in the Los Angeles team are all more successful than he is, and boy do they have issues.
It was plain to see the lack of coherence in the side towards the end of their playoff run. Add to that, the petulance of players like Ron Artest, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum who all got ejected for vicious and disgraceful (Bynum) fouls or the struggles of Pau Gasol on the court and his subsequent booing by his own fans. That is still not the end of it though.
The team is a mess. Internal strife is rife. If anyone couldn’t see Andrew Bynum’s on court displeasure with his teammates, he ended their confusion by coming out after the playoffs to publicly demand a greater role in the side’s offence rather than being just a defensive work horse. That only led to a public dressing down from Kobe, who told reporters that Bynum would have to “get in line”.
Mike Brown has no capability what so ever of solving these issues. Man management is simply not his forte. This is a man who couldn’t control a humble high school boy from turning into a spoiled superstar who ended up having a feud with his own fans. And the Lakers expect him to deal with a veteran, a superstar, 5-time NBA champion and resident ego maniac in the form of Kobe Bryant.
Good luck with that.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in the article are the writer’s own personal views and has nothing to do with bettor.com’s editorial policy.
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