Regardless of the Bucher tidbit, there has been an obvious pattern of only hiring people "in the family." This isn't just with her, but Jim as well. Our last two coaches are both former Lakers. She hires the greatest Laker player of all time and the second greatest Laker player of all time's agent to run the team. She's allowing a man who has failed horribly at every stop he has had in his post playing career (Rambis) to help conduct the coaching search. This type of practice is fine if you are running a small furniture store in a rural area. But this is a multi-billion dollar corporation. The odds of the best person for the job coincidentally always being a former Laker is astronomical. Most of us aren't calling Jeannie out because she is a woman. I don't care about what's in between her legs. I care about what's between her ears. And what's between her ears seems a little slow to evolve.
Here's the thing though, it's not hearsay when Kurt is involved in the coach hiring process. That gives him a position and power. He's not there to hand out concessions. Whether he's a substitute, filling in and helping out his wife's bestie until we hire someone (even more troubling cause the incoming pres should be involved in that process), he has a position now and that's not a good thing. We're f***ed either which way. If he's a substitute with input, he has no experience, credentials, or business being there. This will only repeat the cycle of having a coach our pres didn't want or pick. If he's not a fill in and is our guy, we're f***ed because he's Kurt Rambis. In over his head and has no business being in such a position when we can go out and hand one of the five best front office exec's in the league a check for $10m and they'll fix us. But Jeanie's in house policy (if she doesn't change) will bury us.
I read Kurt (senior advisor) at the Kidd interview as Jeanie needing another trusted ear if she can't be there. Linda wasn't at those meetings. I'm sure that will also be done at Howard's meeting too, since that's Rob's guy. It's reported that Jeanie will be at the 2nd interviews tho. Monty's is today, so we'll soon find out. In terms of nepotism...Jeanie had seen her very successful father hire from within and with good results. Heck, there's been stories where the good doc's girlfriends were given jobs within the organization. And it's not just the Lakers...recently successful orgs like the dubs do the same thing. Here's the reality... Jeanie is not a bball mind and needs to hire those folks to make those decisions. But let's not act like she had any role in hiring Luke or doing anything in terms of bball ops with the previous regime. The nixed Cp3 deal and MDA over Phil shows you enough of the disconnect that was there. She had minimal to no communication with her bro in terms of bball decisions and the only thing she had a pulse on was the Kobe legacy extension (for marketing purposes). With Magic it would be different...but something behind the scenes happened and here we are. Bron (who still has his flag planted in Laker soil), a max spot, alot of kids and only a total of 15m in dead cap for the next 3 years....here we are...all things considered, it could be worse. Luke could still be here with Rob/Kurt/Linda already having official titles. But the truth of the matter hasn't come out yet. ....and when it does, we can start reaching for the shovels. At least, that's how I'll approach it.
hahahahahahhaha. Good. Alright Lebron, need more of this kind of s***. No more purses and all that foofy stuff.
I'm fond of Jeannie and I was glad when she canned her brother. I think she's the closest to her father of the Buss kids. Things look a bit sketchy right now, but I'm rooting for her and for the Lakers of course. I'm not totally buying into the media drama yet. They love to opine about what our players are thinking or saying behind the scenes (Lebron), love to drop stories, founded on truth or not about Lakers management without citing sources. You all here at LB are smart enough to know how anything Lakers sells, even when we aren't in the playoffs and playing. They've got to fill that void. But it will be a true test for Jeannie as head of the org this summer. All this discord can be replaced with optimism if we can land a big FA fish, make a trade for AD and/or fill out this roster with a better team surrounding Lebron. If we can emerge on top then it was just some adversity to get over. I'm not going to get too wound up about all of this stuff either way at this moment. I'll wait to see what actually happens.
Exactly...what can we honestly do right now, other than wait for the postseason to end and along with it, potential candidates to free up. We can't really make defining personnel changes till the summer anyways. The media (and surprisingly our fans) are just s***ting on us right now. With every fiber of my being, I would advise them all to re-lax, butt I feel that would just add to the problem.
while I dont believe everything media is saying, the interview about James came from the guy who covers him (McMinemin), what does he have to gain by lying? It only makes him look foolish and could possibly lose his credibility/connection with James. The Rambis involvement is legit (husband/wife), their credentials and accomplishment are in questionned and media is piling it on them and jeanie but theres no disputing the fact that jeanie is relying on "family" who aren't necessarily qualified to be doing whatever it is they're doing with Jeanie for the lakers
I never said McMenamin was lying. I do believe however that he is inflating things to fuel the drama. I listened to him on the radio when he spoke and then listened for the next couple of hours while the ESPN radio guys kept calling it the "McMenamin BOMB." It was hyped to heck by them. So yeah, I contend that he doesn't know what Lebron himself is thinking, but some of the things he said that James might be skeptical of management after the Magic resignation could be true. I just don't think it's as dramatic as they are stating because that's what makes people keep listening to them. Again, none of it really matters except the results. I'll wait to see what those are before I opine more.
Chaz isn't anywhere. Chaz is everywhere. He dwells within all of us. We all have a bit of the Chaz residing in our souls.