Lakers: Remembering The Lakers' Post-Phil Jackson Coaching Carousel
Episode nine of Hulu's ongoing docuseries "Legacy," directed by "Training Day" alum Antoine Fuqua and produced by Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss, discusses the Lakers in the 2010s, a decade that began quite headily with L.A. collecting its 16th title against the Boston Celtics, only to end with a team shuffling through a variety of coaches after Phil Jackson's second departure from the franchise in 2011.
When Jackson left, assistant head coach and former Shaqobe Lakers role player Brian Shaw had been considered the "heir apparent" by both Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant, who made public endorsements for Shaw at the time.
Shaw says now in the doc that, during a house call with the team's then-owner Dr. Jerry Buss and his son Jimmy, Dr. Buss indicated that he was going to let his son, at the time the team's president of basketball operations, make the ultimate decision with his next hire. "Dr. Buss told me, he said, 'In order for Jimmy to grow in his role, I have to step back and allow him to do what he feels is best for the team going forward.' The rest of the meeting was mainly Jimmy doing a lot of the talking."
"I've always liked Brian Shaw," Jimmy says now in the "Legacy" documentary. "He was very smart. But we needed to have the right coach."
"He gave me his outlook on the team, and [suggested] that Andrew Bynum is the guy that's going to carry this team to the next era of Laker dominance. And he says, 'Everybody on the team, including Kobe, could go if it came down to it.'"
Jim Buss chortles at this quote now, claiming it's an inaccurate representation of the conversation. "We were building a team or trying to build a team around certain players, but I would never say, 'Even Kobe could go.'"
Shaw says now that no one reached out to him to let him know that Jimmy Buss chose to bring in Mike Brown instead, because Brown was the bigger name. "It felt unsteady," Jeanie says of the move.
The Thunder killed the Lakers in the second round of the 2012 Western Conference playoffs. Barnes says now that he "knew" Brown was not going to be able to help L.A. climb the mountain.
As an aside, it's funny that the documentary just skips the Lakers' multi-team trade that sent Jim Buss's pet project Andrew Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers and landed Dwight Howard in Los Angeles, or the signing of former two-time MVP point guard in 2012 free agency. That season, expectations were actually sky-high for L.A. The team does talk about the firing of Mike Brown and the hiring of D'Antoni after a miserable start to the season, but not just how bad that start was given the level of talent involved.
Brown was canned just five games into the 2012-13 season, when the club stumbled to a 1-4 record at the start of the "Now This Is Going To Be Fun" era (spoiler alert: no it wasn't). Brown finished with a 42-29 regular season record and a 5-7 postseason record during his very brief Lakers stint. He was temporarily replaced by one of his assistants, Bernie Bickerstaff, as interim head coach. Bickerstaff went 4-1 across his five games.
After his Lakers run, Brown returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers to lead the team during the 2013-14 season. Following that, he would pivot to an assistant role under head coach Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors, with whom he won three titles between 2016-2022. This spring, Brown reached an agreement to serve as the new head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
With Brown gone, Staples Center home crowds weren't shy about weighing in on who they wanted the Lakers to hire next: Phil Jackson, with whom L.A. had appeared in seven Finals, winning five.
Jerry, Jimmy and Jeanie Buss did discuss bringing Phil back to right the ship after Brown was let go. "I met both Mitch and Jimmy Buss... I thought that the team was capable," Jackson says in interview footage now. The coach requested the opportunity to sit with the decision for two days, which he felt would give him time to talk with his doctors and family. "Phil was gonna give them an answer on Monday morning, and at midnight on that Sunday night, the phone rings and wakes [Jackson and his live-in girlfriend, who just happened to be Jeanie Buss] up," Jeanie says now. "And all I hear him say is, 'All right. Okay. All right. Thank you.' Well, they just called to tell him that they've given the job to Mike D'Antoni.'"
Kupchak relays, "In the meeting, Phil told us he didn't want to coach, but if we needed help to get through the year, he would do it. We weren't looking for a coach to get through the season."
"And he said, 'I will only do home games,'" Jim Buss adds. "Well we can't have that, that's not going to work."
"That's not true," refutes Jeanie. "I felt betrayed because Jimmy had sucked me back in... Why would you put your sister through that? ...I still don't understand it."
D'Antoni coached the team from 2012-14, where he posted a 67-87 regular season record and an 0-4 playoff record. Former Showtime Lakers starting shooting guard Byron Scott took over from 2014-16 during the team's listless rebuilding years. Due more to personnel issues than coaching, Scott's Lakers posted a dismal 38-126 record.
Former Kobe Bryant/Pau Gasol era reserve small forward Luke Walton coached the Lakers from 2016-19. He was fired following the team's first season with superstar LeBron James. The team went 98-148 in its three seasons under Walton.
Frank Vogel was then brought in and won immediately. The Lakers front office proceeded to dismantle its roster in service of an ill-advised trade for ex-All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, undermining Vogel the whole year with leaked reports that his job was on the line, and finally fired him in the summer of 2022. L.A. went 127-98 with Vogel at the helm in the regular season, and 18-9 in the postseason. Darvin Ham, proceed with caution!
Honestly, this inside look at the chaotic decision-making that went on behind-the scenes makes L.A.'s little mom and pop organization sound like a completely mismanaged mess. Hierarchically now, Jim Buss no longer has any say in personnel decisions. But things remain a bit clunky in terms of the team's front office. The Lakers reportedly want only to make moves when they reach a consensus between Jeanie, her younger brothers Jesse and Joey, advisor Kurt Rambis, and ostensible president Rob Pelinka. They need to empower Pelinka to make the call at the end of the day.
