No matter whose side anyone there is no benefit to playing this out in public. None. I've long felt Jeanie was deliberately undermining her brother and this is just one more swing from her on a dead horse.
Awful timing. Honestly I don't think it'll make much of an impact on FA this week. The broad strokes are nothing new and nothing agents weren't already aware of. The proof will be in the pitch. We come out flat again like last year, every Buss should pack their bag and get the f*** out. Honestly regardless of their success, I think it's time for a change and unfortunately I think Mitch will be involved in that departure as well. Jessie should stay, he's done great work with scouting. That's the only Buss I want on the payroll. Give Ryan West the keys. I'm sick of the family squabbles and their repercussions on this organization. This isn't an E! Reality show, it's the most prestigious basketball organization around and their pissing all over their father's legacy. On another note, if that's true about Jim's delusions about who we are going to acquire, I want some odd what he's smoking. Hopefully he's not in charge of the time window spreadsheet of calls and face to face meetings for FA. otherwise, he might stay camped out in front of Durant's house (even though he's meeting in NY) until July.
i'm lazy and haven't read this thread, but i kinda feel like ding was trying to make sure his audience understood jeanie was the source without naming her, which i commend! story within a story.
The timing of this is the absolute worst. Not saying one side is right and the other is wrong but did Jeanie really have to air this laundry? I used to be team Jeanie but the past couple months she has been annoying. Continuously taking shots at Jim and Mitch and lets not get started on her support BYEron. Jim knows the timeline he set for himself, no need to keep reminding everyone every time she does an interview. I also hate her wanting to bring Phil back as president of basketball operations, great coach but awful FO person. He would force the triangle and trade all our young pieces for triangle-savy players. Just let Mitch and Jim do their jobs. Questionable coaching hires but they handled Luke well and have drafted very well. If they fail in free agency again and have reached the timeline, then fire him/them. Do it behind the scenes, no reason to make everything public. Dr Buss must be rolling in his grave right now.
Ding has always been one of my favorite writers, I've always subscribed to the OC Register not the LA Times, but this article was bad timing and in bad taste in parts IMO. People on Twitter are replying very harshly to him, accusing him of putting this out there now for money, and I'm not sure I disagree. Apparently he went on the radio and kinda backtracked, or tried to spin it positive. From LG Poster "Math": Poster "RCS926": ^^^ He did retweet/repost the article with a different tag line hours later, my guess is after the super negative reaction, being called out for using deaths of loved ones in Laker management in this. Many found it unnecessary and not relevant and I agree.
If I read it right (LG is harder to follow than LB to me because of the huge quote tree posts), another poster said Ding said it took him 10 months to write the article. If that's the case, he did this to get the most hits, and I'm not a big fan of his right now.
It was meant to shed light on the inner workings of the FO huh? Ohh. I thought for sure this was the ole college try of making your paper longer with irrelevant b******* to meet the guidelines. Maybe next time you write an article about the inner working of the Lakers FO, Ding, remove your head from Jeanie's a**. *Edit - I will probably never get over the, Mitch's 15 year old daughter died so he doesn't communicate and it hurts the Lakers/Jeanie, Jeanie's dog died and she put in extra work to get everyone on the same page comparison. That's just uncalled for and I will probably never have respect for Ding as a writer/person after that. That's just wrong on so many levels.
Kinda weird that it took him 10 months to write this when most of it is regurgitated content we've heard before.
He didn't directly compare the two, but if his article was/is about the inner workings of the FO w/ a main topic being communication, he definitely made an indirect comparison of the two. Mitch doesn't communicate because X example, Jeanie tries to communicate even with X example going on. It's a low blow to even talk about Mitch's daughter like that or Mitch's response to it. You cant write, what, 7k words and omit that and convey the same message? That's awful.
Yeah I heard him on damage control. Im actually more upset knowing he has this for months and then decides to do it now. There's no way that's by chance and honestly I doubt in that case Jeanie wanted him to do it now. What the f*** was he thinking? And yeah I didn't catch the dog-to-daughter comparison. Holy crap that's pretty damn insensitive and a horrid comparison. Ding effed this one up big time. Something isn't adding up.
My only takeaway from all of these is that some FA will not care about it, i.e. Whiteside but I don't think we have a chance on other high level ones now. No self-respecting Laker fan should be reading any of the garbage Ding will spew out in the future. Boycott that idiot. BSPN never got any click from me after 2005, so it can be done, we don't need such saboteurs in our lives so stop reading/following/engaging these anti Laker guys.
^ You seem to think Whiteside may not care. I got news for you he's definitely on the higher end of free agents. He's near the top of the list after Kevin.
