Another perspective...from this site:
http://myespn.go.com/nba/truehoopRoland Lazenby: Lakers Must Get Front Office in Order
May 30, 2007 3:54 PM
Roland Lazenby wrote one of the best basketball books ever, "The Show," which is all about the history and inner workings of the Los Angeles Lakers. He also has great ongoing insight into the Lakers through his excellent relationship with the straight-talking Tex Winter.
As soon as I saw the latest act of this drama, I was eager to get his thoughts.
And I felt sort of odd doing so, as Lazenby teaches at Virginia Tech, where he is in the middle of overseeing a truly cathartic, tear-stained, student-run creative project memorializing the very real events there.
But Lazenby says basketball has been a pleasant distraction for him, and he found a few minutes to share his thoughts, which I have transcribed and edited somewhat for length.
I still think we're in the early stages of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The worst could still be averted, I would think.
It's a difficult situation, though. It's the next act in a long and unfolding tragedy. Everyone is at the stage where they want to point fingers, but they all contributed to this a little, including Kobe Bryant, including Shaquille O'Neal, and including Jerry Buss.
They should have thought about this before they blew it all up.
The tragedy now has become "King Lear," with this issue of transition. Transitions are always difficult, but in the case of the Lakers, it's ludicrous to think of Jim Buss as a personnel guy. I don't know Jim Buss, but I do know that he should study hard how to be a good owner. He is not a personnel guy, and he should not sit anywhere close to the GM's office.
(And the Lakers have always had a complicated "court." Magic Johnson is a voice that's around that cares a lot and is hard to ignore. Jerry West always had his say when he was there. There are a lot of voices even in simpler times.)
I believe Phil seeded a lot of this conflict to serve his own purposes. And Kobe, until now, has been stoic, really not into playing the PR game. But now he's at that age. He identifies with Shaq now. Shaq was impatient with Kobe, because he had things he wanted to get done quickly. Kobe gets that now.
And it's not all Jim Buss's fault. But they need to clear up the personnel situation. Jim Buss is not and never will be a personnel guy, and I think he's the complicating factor.
Jerry Buss has earned respect as an owner. But owners have to let the personnel guys sort out the talent. Jim Buss drawing his identity as the guy who drafted Andrew Bynum ... that doesn't float.
Tex Winter has long said that this organization had some difficult decisions coming, because Andrew Bynum is just too young to do what the organization needs. That's the tough choice.
And the other one is what do you do with Lamar Odom? I'm not convinced he's the problem.
A lot of this latest blow up was ignited by Jim Buss criticizing Phil on that radio show. That's what made it spill publicly. And I think Kobe just realized: this is not going to change.
Everybody wants to blame Mitch Kupchak. I don't buy that. He is sharp. He is trying. But he's forced to make concessions to his owners. In any case, I think he has largely made the same draft picks that Jerry West would have made.
You have to have hard core basketball people who have really dedicated a lifetime to the game.
If I could do one thing to fix the Lakers? I would send Jim Buss off to owner school with his dad.
Shaquillle O'Neal told me in "The Show" that once Jerry West left, there was never anyone he could trust. (The hubris of the situation smells like the Bulls in 1998, when Jerry Krause determined to rebuild the Bulls.)
It's a mess in the front office, especially if you're a player in his prime who is ready to compete for a championship. (Someone pointed out to me once: with all the money the Lakers wasted on players like Brian Grant since O'Neal left, they could have paid Shaq his money.)
Jerry Buss is at an age where it's transition time. I don't know if anything can save it. The ideal thing would be for Jim Buss to stand up and say: "I'm going to let the personnel people do their job. We're going to clear up the front office picture, and re-establish the trust that the players have a basketball person running the show."
