This is also the most knowledgable Lakers community out there. The same people that ridicule Jim are the ones who defended Boron. Everyone has an agenda and if the last few months have taught me anything, it's that Jeanie is just as responsible, if not more so than Jim for our shortcomings. She's just more aggressive with the PR spin.
I think it is beyond the pale to question the way someone handles the passing of his/her child. I don't think the article was critical of that. I think the story was being used to demonstrate the depth of the lack of communication between the team's president and its GM. Mitch can deal with his daughter's illness and passing however he wants. But it's objectively bizarre that people in the organization didn't even know about it.
Ok, fair enough. But there are like, three people on Earth who defend Boron. And I'm just as dismissive of that as I am of Jimmy-defenders.
I disagree. There's no right or wrong way to handle the single most devastating experience a person can go through. Your co-workers aren't entitled to anything in that situation, period.
Getting ride of Mitch would be a terrible idea. What is scary is that if Jim is on his way out I can see Jeanie axing Mitch as well....just collateral damage. Mitch for his issues, overall has done a fabulous job along with the Scouting Departments.
I'm not questioning the way he handled it. I just think it's bizarre that his co-workers didn't know about it. It shows a profound lack of communication.
I see both sides of the part on Mitch's daughter. Jeanie isn't saying she HAS to be in the loop or that Mitch handled the tragic passing of his daughter poorly. She's just saying that she views Mitch as family and she was hurt when Mitch didn't open up and reach out and let everyone know what was going on so they could offer support. The thing is: maybe Mitch just doesn't want to do that? Mitch strikes me as a closed off guy and that's not a bad thing. Mitch is allowed to be closed off, that's his business. I understand Jeanie just wants to be supportive in that tough time, but that's not her call. And to bring it up here is uncharacteristically tactless by her. Just let that go, that's Mitch's business. Jeanie seems like she wants to establish an open communication line and she's increasingly frustrated about it. She wants to get Jim and Mitch out who she feels like are conspiring in their own little clique instead of talking to everyone. The way she is going about that is immature and uncalled for ESPECIALLY right now. We are trying to attract players and rumors of discontent in the FO will accomplish the absolute opposite of that.
Why does someone have to communicate that their daughter passed away. Unless his job performance was suffering substantially, the Lakers should only be asking if anything is wrong or what they can do to help. If things continued to be a problem then the Lakers can ask Mitch if he is comfortable taking some time away from the job. Everyone handles grief differently. Some people want to work because it gets their minds off of things.
The league and players will have no respect for this organization if this keeps up. That will reflect in free agents not wanting to come here, trade prospects telling their agents they don't want to come here, and basically the franchise not having the leverage of its legacy to get what it wants. Everybody says and knows that Dr. Buss was the competitive advantage against the league and know that he assembles a solid front office that lead to the championship results. But what you have now is the opposite. Jeannie, Jim, and Ding are sabotaging this upcoming season, knowingly or unknowingly. Jeannie with her messy family squabbles and loyalty to Phil, Jimmie by sacrificing this franchise with poor leadership in trying to keep his job as priority #1 even though he is not qualified, and Ding for the blockbuster article right before free agency. This franchise has earned its terrible results in this post-Jackson era. No sympathy nor patience from me. They are destroying the franchise their father built.
The hilarious thing is - LG is all up in arms defending Jeanie... LOL. Ding and Pincus... oh my god. So much respect lost within the last 2 years. Holy crap.
I'm not really trying to defend Jim, I just don't understand the hate he gets when we have a real lack of strong evidence for him being awful at his job. What I don't see Jim doing is going through the media to sabotage Jeanie, that is something we have evidence of Jeanie doing for months now as anytime she goes on radio she won't stop talking about how she wanted Phil here and her brother didn't, or how she wasn't informed of the B0ron firing. She's always publicly airing stuff that doesn't need to be and trying to make Jim (and Mitch) look bad. Jim may not speak often, but when he does I usually read a lot of positivity, even if it's delusional it doesn't come across as spiteful to his sibling at least.
This has Phil Jackson written all over it. Definitely a hit piece by Ding and I bet Phil is the source He is competing with us for free agents and trying to make us look bad The Laker brand hit rock bottom last year, it has been on its up turn over the last few months. Nice job of trying to rehash old news
The Lakers have made smaller trades. They traded for Lin, Hibbert, they even got a couple of trade exceptions. They made one for Bazemore I believe as well. They got him for Steve freaking Blake. Do you really think making a small trade would've made a difference? We won 67 games dude. Of course not. Yeah some of those trades didn't work out, but it's not like the Lakers didn't try. Who is saying trading for Dwight was an accomplishment? Nobody is saying that. What we said was Jim made some good trades that just didn't work out. It happens. Not every trade is great. I love how you conviently forget to mention the draft picks and NOT trading them. That's how you build a great team. Just like OKC, the Warriors, and the Spurs and they've made some great picks and yet of course Jim gets no credit from you. As for free agency yeah we've struck out, but it's been a blessing in disguise. Do you realize how many teams strike out in free agency? There seems to be this notion we've gotten great free agents every year and that's not the case. The last one was Shaq two decades ago even when we were good we never got max players. What exactly is Jim supposed to do with free agents? We're REBUILDING. No great player in his prime is gonna wanna play for a rebuilding team especially if he's never won a championship like Durant. As for stock piling draft picks are you serious? We have FIVE in the last three seasons.
I know GT came by once or twice around here. I'd like to get more perspective on why we should support Jeanie and not Jim in this case. We shouldn't support either.
Feels like one of the last things w needed before FA. Went with Luke/the draft bringing in much needed fresh air of optimism to stuff like this surfacing once again.
