Phil Jackson, LeBron James and Rich Paul have very public history. Is trudging all that up worth it for the Lakers?
On the surface, asking the most decorated coach in NBA history for advice in finding the next head coach makes total sense. Regardless of time away from the league, Phil Jackson is probably still able to identify qualities necessary to be successful in that position in general, and specifically with the Lakers.
Once you dig a little deeper, though, some questions do start to arise and, according to some reports, already are around the Lakers organization. This week in “The Lakers Lounge,” Harrison Faigen and I racked our brains to figure out who so ever this mystery source or sources who aren’t thrilled about Jackson’s return might be.
But in all seriousness, it is worth wondering about the effect Jackson’s presence might have on an already rocky relationship between Klutch Sports and the Lakers. It wasn’t too long ago that LeBron James was subtweeting Rob Pelinka every chance he got for not going out and using their one remaining first-round draft pick to bring in immediate help, after all.
So, I asked Harrison whether he thinks it’s worth it to get Jackson’s input on this decision knowing what it might mean for an already annoyed superstar, and also what it might mean seeing as the Lakers have done so regardless of who it might rub the wrong way.
From there, we spent some time on reports that Frank Vogel was fired in part because he wasn’t able to get enough out of Russell Westbrook — something both Harrison and I find pretty ridiculous considering other leaks from the same front office.
Finally, we wrapped on news that if James was to hit the trade market (he won’t), not all teams would line up and make a serious offer to land him. What a weird time this is.
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And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.
