The agent interviewed probably lost a client to Pelinka or its just jealousy and of course that exists among agents. Rob will probably need to make some phone calls and get a few of those relationships straightened out and on a new, clean slate. The article does also say he has great respect among agents though so I don't think this is an issue. We don't need a Troy Weaver as GM. Nice guy but the charisma of a pineapple. We need the Troy Weavers out there as Assistant GMs. GM is also a sales job, a very big part of it is. Any GM can hire some number-crunchers to do cap and CBA calculations for them. Mitch was essentially that. He used to say he'd study a CBA for weeks if not months. That can be done by a 50k a year assistant or 2 if not interns. This is not the most important thing for a GM. You have guys who you delegate this to and you just ask "can we do this or not?". We want our GM working the phones, making relationships with the other GMs, agents and when the evening of June 30th (that's right Mitch, not 12:01 EST am July 1) comes around, then you are on the big stage with the FAs themselves. What I want to hear from Rob's mouth then is "Hello, Paul? Heya PG it's Rob Pelinka with the Lakers, and I've got Magic Johnson on the line with us". When a Rob Pelinka becomes available, you snatch himup. All these media saying we didn't do our due diligence and the ones playing the race card ect need to be directed to the Lakers source of all decision making: The Organization of the United Brotherhood of It's None of Your Damn Business Who We Hire.
Now that that's out of the way, have you read the dude's CV yet? If Magic was qualified to be head of BB operations, Pelinka is qualified to be GM. it's outrageous how impressive his CV is.
I don't disagree that who we hired is our business, but there's no denying that the fact we didn't have a hiring process of interviewing other people is strange. It's odd that we wouldn't interview people for an open position that is absolutely a coveted opportunity. Again, it's not inherently a bad thing, but it could be if we made the wrong choice. I happen to think Pelinka is the right choice, but there's cause for criticism. As for the people saying he has rubbed people the wrong way, I think that's completely natural. Some people rub people the wrong way and a good agent is going to work for his client's best interest even if it pisses some people off. The key as an agent is to make sure your client is satisfied and he surely did that. I've heard different players all saying he was a great agent, but this is a different side of the fence. Now he's dealing WITH those people he gave a hard time to before. I'm sure it'll take some smoothing over and a lot of "hey business is business, it's not personal" and all that fun stuff. I think this was the right move and I'm eager to see him be announced and hear what he has to say, but that doesn't mean he's going to be great off the bat. Just like with Luke and Magic, I expect them to succeed in the long run but there's probably going to be some bumps along the way.
As the famous recording artist manager Irving Azoff (the Eagles, Van Halen, Christina Aguilera etc) said, "If I haven't pissed off some people during my client's career, then I haven't done right by my client". Nature of the business. Remember this guy? We were asking Rob to drop everything and sell his successful business. That's one hell of a request. He deserved the respect of us saying "Look, you're our guy, there is no search". Of course you have to be sure in this case about what you are doing/getting, absolutely and I think we were. Rob, on his own credentials is a very impressive hire but you know Jeanie and Magic had Kobe in their ears too. I think the pairing (Magic/Rob) is a perfect Ying/Yang thing. Certainly from the FA aspect and I think these two are savvy enough to shore up any areas they deem need help with some more hires. I don't think our FO is done yet.
No, there was a lot of interest from other GM's one of the things that was in the Wojo article. But we knew Pelinka was our man and Magic & Jeanie didn't want to have to pay compensation to another team for their GM like the Paper Clips had to do for Doc Rivers.
I'm excited to see what Pelinka, Magic, Jeannie and Luke can do going forward. It seems like it could be a winning combo. But as always let's see. I for one am glad to see the Jim Buss era come to an end. I do feel a little bit bad for Mitch but it was time to move on.
IMO, he's borderline Hall of Fame. Won 4 rings as GM and another 3 as Asst GM. Can definitely make a case for him getting in. But that winning personality might keep him out.
He did a superb job of keeping going what Jerry West set up and also did another excellent job of reloading around Kobe. Of course there was an assist there from his former boss with that Gasol signing, but hey, connections are part of the biz. Nice job all around.
