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Welcome to the Los Angeles Lakers
Sunday July 4 ,2004
Apparently, Lakers Have No Off-Season
Hard to figure. On one hand, a die-hard, card-carrying alumnus of the North Carolina Tar Heels such as Mitch Kupchak would never on his own choose a Dukie for his team's basketball coach. On the other hand, leave it to a die-hard, card-carrying Tar Heel alumnus to figure out the only way his alma mater can beat the dreaded Dukies: Steal their coach and doom the Blue Devils to the level of mediocrity the rest of college basketball operates under.
Way to go, Kobe, um, I mean Mitch!
If Mike Krzyzewski somehow flies the coop from his comfortable hoop utopia called Duke and signs to coach the Lakers, who eventually is the "real" Coach K, Kobe or Mike?
Let's see: Jerry Buss is in Italy, Phil Jackson is in Montana, Mitch Kupchak is in denial, Shaq is in la-la land, Kobe's in limbo, Fisher's in transit and Magic Johnson is in shock. As for Jack Nicholson? He's in the market for Clipper season tickets.
Why don't we trade Shaq for Jerry West?
So Shaq is demanding a trade. Woop-de-doo. I would tell Shaq to not let the door hit him on the way out, but it would be pointless: Shaq is too old and too slow to get out of the way of the door.
Shaq would be wise to rename himself "The Big Has-Been." He's 32 going on 40. He has the exercise habits of Kirstie Alley. Shaq has shown up fatter and more out of shape as the years go by. Kupchak should trade this fading rapper/cop/actor for some young talent that will play basketball rather than park at a buffet table for the entire off-season.
I think a trade to New Orleans is in order. I could envision the headline now: "The Big Lazy Is Shipped to the Big Easy."
Why blame Jerry Buss for Phil and Shaq leaving? Phil can't control the team anymore, yet he asks for a salary bump from $6 million a year to $12 million. And the Big Decline expects $30 million a year for the next three years with the way he has been playing lately?
Oh sure, the current Laker mess is all Jerry Buss' fault.
Granted, filling the shoes of Jerry West is a challenge, but Mitch Kupchak is proving to be either a really old novice at NBA management or he's just not cut out for the job. Never mind that he has not made one recruiting success, a general manager cannot allow eight out of some 14 contracts to run out, including the owner-favored future of the team. And you can't be so tactless with media regarding your other star that he demands a trade. But that's the price you pay for not putting your foot down with the owner and ending up being a lap dog.
After seeing the passion of Laker fans during the playoffs, and reading the many letters in The Times analyzing their defeat, I am forced to ask: What is to like about this team? How do they inspire such emotion? Is it the remote coach who only takes jobs where there's a superstar to guarantee a title? Is it the overweight, overhyped, moody over-the-hill center? Is it the adulterous possible rapist who has been rumored to throw a game to make a point? Or is it the cast of no-names who surround this bunch?
For all the analysis of the Lakers as a dysfunctional "family," I think the people of L.A. are the obvious dysfunctional entity for caring for this really nasty and overrated team.
The Lakers reported today that Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Yankees for Bernie Williams. George Steinbrenner said in a news conference that it was important for the Yankees to preempt any possible moves by the Red Sox.
Williams is expected to easily get 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists a game, in addition to making 87.5% of his free throws.
In return, O'Neal gets a stable team environment.
Weekend of Waiting for Lakers
Krzyzewski's decision is expected shortly, with only the future of the franchise and possibly one of its superstars riding on it.
It was Monday afternoon and some Duke basketball personnel had gathered on a campus court in Durham, N.C.
Mike Krzyzewski entered the gym, according to a witness, and approached the group. The conversation stopped.
"You'll never guess who called," Krzyzewski told them. "Kobe Bryant. He wants me to come coach him."
Three days later, not far from that gym, Krzyzewski sat with Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak discussing the details of an offer to leave Duke for Los Angeles, perhaps to coach Bryant, also presently deciding if he wants to be a Laker.
Bryant's future with the Lakers could be tied to Krzyzewski's decision, which the organization expects shortly, perhaps by the end of the weekend. Neither Krzyzewski nor Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva was in his office Friday, the day after news broke in Durham the Lakers had come calling.
Krzyzewski was believed to be spending the weekend with his family at a beach home in North Carolina.
As Krzyzewski pondered a future in Los Angeles, and Bryant pondered two franchises in Los Angeles, and Shaquille O'Neal pondered leaving Los Angeles, the Lakers waited. They do not expect to have a new coach, no matter who it is, in place until the middle of next week, at the earliest. Bryant is expected to meet next week with Clipper officials, including Executive Vice President Andy Roeser, General Manager Elgin Baylor and Coach Mike Dunleavy.
Meanwhile, Rudy Tomjanovich sits in Houston, going on two weeks since his interview with Kupchak and owner Jerry Buss, having known all along the Lakers had at least one more call to make.
Bryant and Tomjanovich have tried to contact each other, though it is unknown if they have connected. It would appear Bryant's preference is Krzyzewski, once nearly his college coach.
Tomjanovich would be coming from semi-retirement, a year in which he recovered from bladder cancer, worked his garden and scouted basketball players.
In the days before his interview, he had decided the Lakers would be a good course for him, and his urologist, Dr. Bernard Goldfarb, forwarded examination results that proved Tomjanovich was in good health. Friends of Tomjanovich said Friday he was not put off by the sudden and intense interest in Krzyzewski, and that, either way, the process has been good for him; it told him he was ready to coach again.Back in Los Angeles after a day spent flying in and out of North Carolina, Kupchak returned to the busy work of O'Neal's trade request, Bryant's free agency and rebuilding a roster that, depending on what happens with O'Neal and Bryant, will need a lot of work or a little.
Laker management assumes Bryant would return if Krzyzewski accepts its offer, presumed to be for $8 million annually over at least five years. But O'Neal has yet to be traded, another potential condition of Bryant re-signing.
All the while the Clippers lurk, probably not unhappy the Phoenix Suns spent their money on guard Steve Nash instead of saving it for Bryant and the Dallas Mavericks weakened their chance to pull O'Neal away from the Lakers.
In the meantime, as the first Laker domino teetered, Duke officials clenched their jaws as they entered a long weekend. After 621 victories and three national championships in 24 seasons in Durham, Krzyzewski is considering a Laker offer to take him away from the hardships of the college game. It also would take him from his three grown daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom reside in Durham, just to sort out the Laker mess, and while being recruited by Bryant, who will stand trial for sexual assault in August.
"The Lakers have a lot more they can offer for a coach that other teams and colleges can't match," Duke President Richard Brodhead said from Vermont on Friday. "Coach K is going to have to decide in his heart what's right and best for him.
"I'm going to have to be patient. He'll have his decision when the time is right. He'll know it when he feels it. I think now he needs time and distance to think. Everyone knows the attachment he feels to Duke and to college basketball, but this offer has its temptations. The nature of this weekend is to pause. It's my deep hope he will choose to stay at Duke."
On a quiet day in the offices at Duke's Cameron Indoor Arena, senior associate director of athletics Chris Kennedy was one of the few in the building.
"I think the thing is sort of in abeyance right now because Mike has gone off to think about it and what the possibilities are and how he feels about the Lakers' offer and how he feels about his 24 years at Duke," Kennedy said. "He's just gone off to think. He needs time and distance."
The timing of the Laker offer, given the nature of the industry, according to Kennedy, has many on campus believing they could actually lose Krzyzewski, who has fended off NBA advances before.
"A lot of stars have lined up," he said. "The whole college basketball atmosphere, the turmoil in Los Angeles, Larry Brown winning the NBA championship as an ex-college coach and playing the kind of basketball that he played.
"I think yeah, [this offer is more serious] because of other circumstances. He talked about the landscape of college basketball and how dramatically it's changed and how difficult it is and how unstable the platform with which you're operating has become. Planning for the future is getting harder and harder to do."
Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy's son, Mike, played three seasons for Krzyzewski, from 1999 to 2002. Dunleavy did not coach during Mike's junior season, allowing him to attend many Duke games.
"Quite honestly, it's very surprising to me," the elder Dunleavy said. "At first I thought there would be absolutely no way. As a matter of fact, when people asked me early on who the Lakers would get, I said, 'Pat Riley, Coach K or Rudy Tomjanovich' — those are the biggest names, you know. But did I think Coach K would ever leave? I'm sitting there saying, 'Why would he ever leave?'
"He's got an incredible house in Durham. His family, all his girls live there, and they're a very close-knit family. They've got a storybook life going there. He's got a program that produces every year, he's got a lifetime contract at Duke. It's almost like what every coach would love to have. So it would be surprising. But who knows?"
A Move by Krzyzewski Would Surprise
More than once during his legendary coaching career at UCLA, John Wooden was contacted by NBA teams intent on coaxing him to the pros.
So Wooden knows all about the decision facing Mike Krzyzewski, who interviewed for the Lakers' coaching vacancy this week.
Wooden has a prediction: Such a move isn't likely.
"If Mike Krzyzewski goes to the Lakers, I'll be tremendously surprised," Wooden said Friday. "If he had absolute certainty that Kobe [Bryant] and Shaq [O'Neal] would be back, then I wouldn't be as surprised, but I'd still be somewhat surprised."
During his 27 years at UCLA, Wooden amassed a 620-147 record, winning 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year span before retiring in 1975.
Krzyzewski has been almost as successful at Duke, with a 621-179 record in 24 seasons. His Blue Devil teams have been to the Final Four 10 times and won three championships.
Several years ago, Wooden visited Durham, N.C., and saw Krzyzewski's program.
"I was really impressed with his practices," he said. "I was impressed with everything at Duke."
Krzyzewski has a lifetime contract at the university and, if the Lakers hold any advantage in luring him away, it would be in the area of salary. A source said the team has offered him a multiyear contract discussed at an estimated $8 million a year.
Still, Wooden guessed that would not be the deciding factor.
"He certainly doesn't need the money," Wooden said. "The only thing that could prompt anyone to do something like this is if they want a challenge."
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