Lakernoise
Apr1

Can You Smell The Mistrust Now?

posted by Roland Lazenby | April 1, 2010 – 7:22 am | Comments (9)
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Of all the situations spawned by the internal division of the Los Angeles Lakers, the dealings with Andrew Bynum seem the weirdest.

That was Tex Winter’s description of the coaching staff’s relationship with Bynum. Not mine. And that was almost two years ago, well before Winter suffered a debilitating stroke.

At the time, the Lakers were nursing their humiliation at the hands of the Boston Celtics in the 2008 championship series. Bynum’s approach was clearly a function of the disconnect between coach Phil Jackson and basketball operations chief Jim Buss.

As Winter explained at the time, Bynum was Jim Buss’s prize draft pick. Buss was apparently concerned about how Jackson was handling Bynum. In fact, Buss would advise Bynum to hire his own big man’s coach because Jackson wasn’t a good coach for big men.

Sister Jeanie Buss, well known as Phil’s girlfriend, questioned her brother’s take on the situation by pointing out Jackson’s large success with Shaquille O’Neal and lesser talented post players in Chicago.

Jeanie Buss had long confided to friends that her brother was the main impetus for the team’s firing Jackson in 2004. With trust between Jackson and Jim Buss already at a minimum, it’s not hard to figure that Jim Buss’s coaching advice for Bynum damaged the relationship further.

Then there was Bynum’s decision to involve his own doctors in his knee injury that season, rather than relying on what the team had to offer in terms of medical support. Frankly, it’s not all that unusual for pro athletes to seek medical advice outside the team. But the sum of the situation left Bynum oddly distanced from the coaching staff, Winter confided at the time.

Two years have passed, and Bynum’s situation with the team has perhaps improved. But the internal trust level in general is not great with the Lakers, so you have to wonder.

Recent games have shown that Bynum’s return to the lineup from his recent injury will be key for the Lakers prospects in this spring’s playoffs.

Even with the Lakers posting the top record in the Western Conference, the Twin Towers look of Bynum and c/f Pau Gasol has brought mixed reviews, but this much is clear: With the two big men, the Lakers have been able to overpower a lot of opponents. Though at times it has seemed that the best pairing is either one of the big men with sixth man Lamar Odom.

The truth is, questions such as these often never find definitive answers in the NBA. Some nights, Bynum and Gasol will play very well together. Other nights, the Twin Towers will have their issues.

As it stands now, those questions are small beside the questions about basic trust within the organization. There have been all sorts of strange signals and communications coming out of the organization this season.

And while Jeanie Buss has tried desperately to put a good public face on it, the situation seems fragile at best. Jerry Buss recently tried to pose that it was normal for Jackson to finish out the season without a contract for next year. But it’s not.

Consider the Denver Nuggets. They found themselves in a similar situation with coach George Karl and reached an agreement with him right before the All Star Weekend just so they could avoid just such late-season craziness as the Lakers are facing right now.

As Shaquille O’Neal told me a few years back, he felt no trust in dealing with Jerry Buss, had no relationship with the man. Now Buss is known for being quite loyal to those with whom he shares trust and warm feelings. But that’s not the case with these Lakers, no matter how many coats of paint you put on it.

Jackson himself has sought to emphasize in his recent public comments that the Lakers only have five or six players under contract for next season. The last time Jackson was fired, the team tried to make a transition to a running team. Are they preparing to do the same now? Has the decision already been made? That’s a fair and legitimate question.

Are the Busses quitting on these playoffs even before they happen? Another fair question.

And is Bynum’s return from injury a wild card in the hand that’s being dealt by the Busses? Another fair question.

And in all of this where stands Kobe Bryant, who can opt out of his Lakers contract after the season? A truly intriguing question.

If this Lakers season disintegrates into the foul gas of mistrust, the blame will lie squarely with Jerry and Jim Buss. Now, as an owner, Jerry Buss has been hugely successful, and he’s earned plenty of favor with Lakers fans. So it may just be that he and son Jim would be forgiven for ditching Jackson’s last team that runs the Triangle offense.

As a friend of Jeanie Buss’s said earlier in the season, Jim and Jerry Buss are gambling that fans won’t complain too loudly if they end the Phil Jackson era with the Lakers. Maybe not.

Of course, all this conjecture winds up lining the bottom of the bird cage, if Bynum returns from injury and the team gathers strength down the stretch.

In the meantime, all Lakers fans can do is wonder. And try not to get a whiff of the mistrust that blows in the winds of El Segundo.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.s

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Mar30

Walton To The Rescue?

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 30, 2010 – 8:43 am | Comments (7)
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Lord knows I don’t want to saddle Luke Walton with any sort of “savior” label as he prepares to return to the Los Angeles Lakers bench after weeks of nursing a back injury.

After all, it’s going to take time and patience for Walton to work his way back in. He’s only played two dozen games this season and has been out since just before the All Star Game.

But when he resumes playing next week and if he’s able to round into form, Walton should improve a lot of things for Phil Jackson’s team.

The Lakers’ bench was decidedly exposed against the New Orleans Hornets in last night’s loss, and Walton should add considerable strength there. He’s had his highlight moments defensively, but it’s the execution of the triangle offense that should improve substantially with Walton on the floor.

Improving that execution should help the bench keep better control of tempo, which means they have a better chance of holding their ground, of not losing leads.

Walton’s presence should also help in forward Ron Artest’s adjustment to the triangle’s nuances and challenges. Walton will give Jackson more options in terms of lineups, particularly in the second half.

With Artest in the lineup, Bryant has gotten far less time on the wing himself, and as Bryant explained to me earlier in the season that has changed his relationship with the offense itself.

Bryant added that he doesn’t mind this. In fact, he said the addition of Artest has made things more interesting for him, given him fresh and different challenges this season.

Mainly, it has meant that Bryant gets the ball in different places than he did last year. That can be good and bad. Getting the ball as a guard means he’s operating higher and further way from the basket. It can mean there are fewer opportunities for him to work “behind the defense” because he is not on the wing.

With Walton on the floor with Bryant, perhaps that means the star will be able to return to some of his comfortable spots in the offensive execution.

Bryant has long shown an ability to turn all kinds of things that could be negatives into positives, and that appears to be his mental approach this season as well.

Bryant pointed out for reporters that because of the addition of Artest this year, the Lakers have changed substantially as a team, simply because it takes time for any player to learn and adjust to the triangle. The classic example of this is Ron Harper, who struggled for most of two seasons with the Chicago Bulls trying to learn the triangle. When he finally did, Harper became a key component of the Bulls, as he later was for Jackson’s first two championship teams with the Lakers.

So it’s only fair to allow Artest his time to learn and adjust, thus the help that Walton can bring in his return is key.

If the Lakers win the title again this year, they’ll win it differently than they did last year, Bryant recently observed.

That’s because last year they won the championship with some elevated execution of their offense.

This year Artest means the Lakers have a chance to develop as a good defensive team in the playoffs, although that obviously still remains a work in progress.

With Walton back, the execution of the triangle also should improve. Make no mistake, if the Lakers are going to win the title in June, they’ll have to improve dramatically, as they did over the course of last year’s playoffs. Walton’s personal improvement was a big part of the team’s progress.

There’s also the enthusiasm Walton brings to the task. He’s an upbeat person. His teammates like him. He’ll bring those tremendous mental positives to the team’s relationship with the offense, just as he always has.

In fact, even during his time on the injured list Walton found a way to emulate triangle offense guru Tex Winter, who has been sidelined himself for almost a year while recovering from a stroke.

Walton has donned a suit and sat amongst the coaching staff, furiously scribbling notes during the course of the game, then communicating what he sees to teammates during pauses in the action.

That, of course, has long been a role filled by the tenacious Winter. Obviously, Walton has been more diplomatic in delivering his observations to teammates than Winter, who was known for his brutally frank corrections of players.

As a player, Walton will confine his contributions to all the subtle things — the reads and passes and cuts — that make Jackson’s triangle teams so special, and secondary players such as Walton so crucial to the big picture.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar27

I’m Declaring Victory

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 27, 2010 – 5:57 am | Comments (13)
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If you read closely between the lines of his recent comments, you can actually hear Lakers coach Phil Jackson mumbling “Uncle.”

The big guy is giving in. He’s not going to go tit for tat with team owner Jerry Buss over his coaching contract for next season and beyond.

Speaking to the media this week, Jackson acknowledged that he has a chance to come back next season. The only way of assuring that, he pointed out, is for the Los Angeles Lakers to win this year’s NBA title. And the odds of that are long, Jackson added.

“Odds wise, I serve at the behest of the Buss family,” Jackson said, then quipped that he serves Buss’ daughter Jeanie “all the time … ”

(Jackson can never resist a little dig at Jerry Buss, who has long disliked the fact that his coach dates his daughter, who also handles marketing duties for the team.)

Then Jackson added, “But (right now) I’m serving this basketball club as a coach. I think it’s the best way to approach it right now. Where this team is, the way it’s built, the way we’ve been going along this season, the direction the NBA is going right now.

“A lot of these things fit together,” he said. “If we win it’s almost imperative that (I) give it another shot, but that’s a lot of ‘if’s’ in there. Winning is a really big (challenge). There are four playoff (series) that you have to get through before you can say that ‘We won’ and then have a chance to do something special again, unique.

“So, that’s a long shot.”

Earlier in the season, Jackson had begun publicly nudging Jerry Buss about his contract for next season. The coach began the effort in front of the New York media with comments implying that the team was making an effort to get him to take a cut from his $12 million salary each season.

Jackson, of course, saw a scenario shaping up and wanted to change the direction that things were going. It was obvious he faced a scenario that forced him to win the NBA title this year to keep his job.

Jackson was really concerned about next year in that it provided him a window to win another championship. Jackson reasoned that if the Lakers didn’t win the title this year, then Jerry Buss and son Jim might decline to give him a new contract (they made a similar move in 2004 and fired him).

Jackson would prefer to have next season under contract, because it would still give him an opportunity to win one more title next year. Jackson believes the NBA is headed for contract troubles with its players union that could easily force a cancelation of the 2012 season due to an owner lock out.

Title opportunities this season and next are huge for the highly competitive Jackson, who has already won 10 titles.

“I think how we make it through the year has a lot to do with it,” Jackson told reporters before a road game in Oklahoma City. “Dr. Buss put some things on the line by resigning Lamar (Odom). Some of it is financial … the team has never lost money since he took over, so yeah it’s a big part of it. I pushed him to sign Lamar, and we all said (that) we have to have this guy back. We put this team in jeopardy as far as financially, but at a time when it’s tough in this league (Dr. Buss) took the step.”

Jackson also acknowledged that the two sides are still kicking around a pay cut, and now he’s actually willing to listen (as opposed to earlier in the season when he left reporters with the idea that he was opposed to taking a cut).

“A pay cut can come in all different forms,” he said in his recent comments (which are provided courtesy of Elliott Teaford at the L.A. Daily News, http://www.insidesocal.com/lakers/2010/03/jackson-coming-back.html . “… there are some ways around that. I think we can find a way to make that work.”

POUNDING THE ISSUE

Obviously I’ve hammered this story here on lakernoise.com, which has led some to question why, others to roll their eyes. It has even prompted Jeanie and Jerry Buss to claim that I’ve overstated the internal conflict and debate for the Lakers.

I’m pretty unapologetic about it, however. I have not overstated it. My inside source, one that has long enjoyed a close relationship with Jackson and Jeanie Buss, has detailed for me the growing problem.

In writing about it, I haven’t been kind to either Jackson or the Busses. I’ve made every effort to expose their petty differences and their hard feelings.

Why have I done this, people have asked. Even my own sweet wife has questioned the sanity of doing it.

A reader named Greg left the following comment on the blog: “Roland, love your work and have all your books but damn man, this thing is stretching it a bit isn’t it? Without getting into a point by point breakdown, it just seems like this is essentially a non-story until the end of the season, doesn’t it? How many teams are there where the owner and coach roll out for a press conference in the middle of the season to address his situation for the next season?”

Greg, my wife, Jeanie Buss, numerous other people have all raised good points. Why the hell am I doing this?

In 1998, I watched all the egos and petty issues slowly tear apart perhaps the greatest team of the modern era, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Jackson’s fight with team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and GM Jerry Krause ultimately robbed Jordan and his fans of the final two seasons of his career.

Basically, the whole thing came down to supersized egos and pure, unadulterated pettiness and bullshit.

It was really disgusting.

In writing about it in my book Blood On The Horns, I wished that I could lock all the parties in a room and get them to talk out their differences. I realized that my hope was naive and idealistic.

Success is an extremely potent liquor. It wrecked the Bulls. Jackson and Krause were drunk with ego. I learned that bullshit and pettiness can always trump accomplishment.

The same scenario was developing in LA LA Land. Those emotions were starting to surge, Jackson was feeling disrespected, and the Busses probably were too.

So I called them out on it in as ugly a fashion as possible. I just didn’t want to watch another truly fine basketball team, the latest version of the Lakers, get swamped by that foul air of mendacity, although after the ugly loss Friday night in Oklahoma City you could argue that’s happening anyway.

Maybe Jackson and the Busses really have declared a truce, maybe they really have dialed back the hard feelings and found common ground to ease the mistrust.

Let’s hope so.

I’m declaring victory anyway, dubious as it is. I forced them to speak out about their issues perhaps before those issues had a chance to wreck things. It’s not as good as getting them in a room for some frank discussions.

But it’ll have to do.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar25

Now Wait A Minute…

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 25, 2010 – 1:42 am | Comments (6)
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I guess I’m flattered.

First Jeanie Buss and now Lakers owner Jerry Buss have come forward to address my observations about the organization’s inner conflicts, particularly the job status of coach Phil Jackson (Jeanie’s boyfriend who used to wear a soul patch).

At least Jeanie addressed me by name. Jerry chose longtime Lakers writer Steve Springer to put together a story answering a tough column I did on this blog about Jerry’s poker face. In Springer’s story for ESPN Los Angeles, he addressed me only as an “Internet report.”

Hey, guys, if you want this to go away, don’t look at me. You gotta get Phil to quit talking about it.

That’s your cold, hard truth here.

It’s obvious he doesn’t feel entirely appreciated. And, puh-leeze, spare me Phil’s breathless response to this that everything is just fine.

It was Jackson who first launched this issue when he chose the team’s trip to the New York market earlier in the season to air his complaints that  Jerry Buss and his boy Jim, who is trying to establish himself as the guy running the Lakers basketball operations, were trying to get Jackson to take a pay cut.

“So they may not even want to hire me,” Jackson said at the time. “They may want to save some money.”

This started with Phil’s indignation over the money, folks. By the way, that’s what really got Phil rolling against Bulls GM Krause back in Chicago. Krause was pinching Phil’s money.

Most recently, I tried to soft shoe Jackson’s remarks about Jerry Buss by calling them “tender.”

But what the heck, let’s be frank about what Jackson did. He used one of his old tricks. Back in his battles with the Chicago Bulls front office, when Jackson wanted to tweak Jerry Krause, he would say something positive about him and then act like he was defending him against critics. In that manner, Jackson could introduce a negative idea to the media and still not get blamed for “seeding” it.

Very crafty.

For example, there are the frequent complaints by fans that Buss — who was not with the team for last year’s championship and was not there to accept the NBA trophy as the owner traditionally does — is detached from the team.

“I think he admires this team, I think he likes his athletes,” Jackson told reporters last week. “He has an ability to stay removed and yet attached to them.”

What does that mean? I think Jerry’s interested in this team?

I think?

C’mon. Let’s face it. Jackson’s trying to coach the team to a championship and he basically says the owner isn’t all that interested.

There’s the fact that Jerry Buss dislikes the triangle offense, which I have pointed out in my columns, because of his great love for his “Showtime” teams that ran with the basketball.

Here’s what Jackson had to say on the subject:

“I think Jerry was very close to his teams in the ’80s, the Showtime teams,” Jackson said of Buss. “And I think he learned something from that. He learned that you can be friends with these guys, but time passes, a generation passes. There’s some heartache involved in that. There’s some pain involved in it the closer you get to the guys.”

So Jackson’s pointing out that Jerry’s teams with Magic Johnson broke his heart. And because his heart is broken he can’t seem to muster any public interest in the current Lakers?

Is that it?

But it is good that Buss at least spoke up. He didn’t say anything much about Jackson’s contract status except what I had already pointed out in my columns: He said the organization will wait until the season is over to renegotiate with Jackson.

Buss pointed out that Jackson waited until the end of the 2008 season before signing with the club for three years on his last contract.

“If I were to go to him right now and said, ‘Phil, will you coach next year?’ He would say let’s wait until the end of the year and see how I feel,” Buss told Springer (not ESPN who bought the freelance piece). “So, I don’t think it causes any tension, I just have to wait until then before a discussion begins.”

No where in any of Springer’s report does it mention that Buss fired Jackson at the end of another contract talk, in 2004. You think that’s an important detail? (On the other hand, I should point out the piece is a hell of a fine interview with the owner, who provides all kinds of insight into his life and family and team issues.)

“I think from the Lakers’ perspective we really want to get through the year, then take a deep breath and see where we are,” Buss said.

Too bad Jackson and Buss didn’t appear together in a press conference, where they could take open questions and assure fans that there’s no problem. But that’s not going to happen, not in LA, where Buss has craftily used his public relations staff over the years to discipline the media.

I don’t want to belabor the point any further. Get on with the season. Just don’t try to blame it on me.

Phil’s the one doing the talking.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, an L.A. Times bestseller recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar21

What Plays In Vegas Should Stay In Vegas, Dr. Buss

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 21, 2010 – 9:08 am | Comments (1)
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So it is a poker game.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson confirmed as much recently when he opened up about Jerry Buss, the team’s 77-year-old owner.

“He’s a gambler,” Jackson told reporters before a recent game in Los Angeles. “He knows the odds, he knows when to take the risks. I think he carries that sense of this is a risk/reward type of game, and what are the rewards with the risk I’ve thrown out there in each situation.”

Jackson, of course, is echoing something he learned from another owner — Chicago Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf — who first taught him about risks and rewards years ago. Jackson also had his unpleasant moments with Reinsdorf yet was able to maintain a strong respect for him even through their nastiest showdown in 1998.

In his years on the bench in the NBA, Jackson has learned some difficult lessons about the mind-set of team owners. You could see those lessons reflected in his recent comments. Jackson has long been known for his masterful use of the media, for planting ideas with reporters and stirring the pot if it needs stirring. Jackson himself calls this “seeding” ideas with the media.

But as he’s aged Jackson has also learned to employ a more direct approach. You might argue that with his recent comments, Jackson was reaching out to Buss, telling him through the media that he understands the pressures the owner faces. (Thanks to the great Kurt Helin at http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/phil-jackson-says-jerry-buss-knows-when-to-hold-them.php )

“This year he took the big risk and brought Lamar (Odom) back, so we could get back to where we are the championship, that we could have a shot at that championship again,” Jackson said of Buss signing Odom in the off-season. “But that was a big pill to chew for an organization that has never lost money in the however many years he has owned the team, 30 years (31, actually). I know that was something he had to convince himself of. I had to convince him of, and stay after it that it was imperative for us to stay with this crew, this group of guys.

“I think Jerry was very close to his teams in the ’80s, the Showtime teams,” Jackson continued. “And I think he learned something from that. He learned that you can be friends with these guys, but time passes, a generation passes. There’s some heartache involved in that. There’s some pain involved in it the closer you get to the guys.

“I think he admires this team, I think he likes his athletes. He has an ability to stay removed and yet attached to them.”

These are somewhat difficult circumstances. Buss pays Jackson the exorbitant sum of $12 million a year to coach the Lakers. Jackson, in turn, has rewarded Buss by leading the team to last year’s NBA title, his fourth championship in nine seasons with the team. Yet Jackson’s contract is up after this season, and Buss has not offered him a new one.

In place of an offer, Jackson and his girlfriend — the owner’s daughter, Jeanie Buss — are left reading the master poker face of Jerry Buss. What is he thinking? What cards is he holding? What will he do?

These are serious questions, because Buss has already fired Jackson once in their time together in 2004. So it’s understandable that this poker face would privately unnerve Jeanie Buss and to some degree Jackson (and the team itself). After all, he is trying to coach his team to another championship.

Jerry Buss has been a tremendous owner in Los Angeles in terms of his success over the past three decades. But it’s not right. Jackson shouldn’t have to play this poker game and try to win a championship too.

Yes, Jerry Buss is a sly, tough owner who plays a sly, tough hand of poker. But passionate Lakers fans know this isn’t the time or place for a hand of poker. The Lakers have an opportunity to do something special here if they can win a title in 2010.

Then again, Jackson has won in tough circumstances before. That’s why he reached out to Buss with those almost tender comments.

Buss has indicated in the past that he doesn’t love the triangle offense that Jackson runs. Truth be known, he prefers the Showtime days of Magic Johnson. Well, who the hell doesn’t? As the recent HBO documentary on Johnson and Boston’s Larry Bird made so perfectly clear, the two players gave the NBA a truly wonderful era. But here’s a news flash: We will never see another Magic and Larry because you don’t turn out special players like that on demand. They were not the product of a system. They were magical players, once-in-a lifetime gifts from God.

In the absence of that, Jackson has helped create the next great era of pro basketball. The era of the triangle offense, if you will. Like the era of Larry and Magic, when this era is gone, it won’t be duplicated.

So Jerry Buss should think twice about hurrying to usher the Triangle Era out the door so that he can get back to Showtime. These eras themselves are special things. They come our way once in a lifetime. We get players like Kobe and Magic and Bird and Jordan and coaches like Jackson and his longtime assistant Tex Winter once in a lifetime.

So with all due respect, Dr. Buss — and I sincerely mean with all respect for you have been a great owner — please leave the fucking poker games for Vegas.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, an L.A. Times bestseller recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar16

Options For The Pipe (LJ) Dream

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 16, 2010 – 11:59 am | Comments (8)
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If LeBron James decides to move to Los Angeles, there’s no way he would choose the Clippers as his new team this off-season.

He wouldn’t go there to be part of a side act, says a basketball source who has known James well and worked with him since childhood. “And the Clippers are definitely a side act.

“He loves being a part of the show,” says the source. “And in L.A., that’s the Lakers. They’re the main show.”

James absolutely loves the California lifestyle, and if he were to make a move away from the Cleveland Cavaliers, California is the place he’d most likely want to go, the source said. He wouldn’t have to be a savior for the Lakers, wouldn’t have to inhabit the fishbowl lifestyle that he does elsewhere. He certainly would face less pressure in L.A. than in New York or even Cleveland.

Still, James will likely remain a Cav for next season, simply because the odds seem to grow daily making the Cavaliers the favorite to win an NBA title this June.

Last year, after Cleveland lost to Orlando in the playoffs, veteran Orlando assistant coach Brendan Malone said it was obvious that the Cavs needed scoring help from the forward position. They have that help now, with GM Danny Ferry’s acquisition of Antawn Jamison in February.

Another key question mark will be the health of veteran center Shaquille O’Neal. If O’Neal can overcome his thumb injury to return to the Cavs roster for the playoffs, the Cavs have size in O’Neal and backup center Zydrunas Ilgauskas to match up with the Lakers, should both teams reach the championship round.

If somehow, the Cavs reach the NBA Finals against the Lakers and lose, there’s little chance that James would try to force a trade to the Lakers. As much as James might want to be a Laker, that scenario would simply not be acceptable, the source said.

What scenario might bring James to the purple and gold? If both the Lakers and the Cavs lost in the playoffs, that might open a situation where James would aggressively attempt to force such a trade.

That, of course, would mean the failure of the two teams with the best record in each conference. Playing for the Lakers would be James’ ideal scenario, the source said, but only that narrow set of circumstances would make it feasible.

Those who have taken exception to my reports that James has quietly explored his Lakers option through an entertainment agent have cited salary cap issues as the obstacle to such a scenario.

Actually, James is a player with tremendous power. The main obstacle to such a move will be what happens on the court, as it should be.

Still, it’s interesting to ponder the result. How would James fit with Lakers star Kobe Bryant? Would there be enough basketballs for the two of them?

James would have no problem deferring to Bryant, said the source. “LeBron has no problem deferring if the player he’s deferring to is worthy.” The best proof of that lies in their Olympic play together.

One issue might be getting James to fit his game into the triangle offense run by Lakers coach Phil Jackson, even though James and Jackson are said to have high regard for each other.

James, however, would be a dangerous wing in the triangle, playing behind the defense much as Michael Jordan did in Chicago. The triangle seeks to create an imbalance by “filling the corner” on the strong side with a great shooter, which would leave James facing four-on-four from the weak side, with the defense spread out.

Good ball movement would mean James could find nice lanes to the basket.

Oh, well. L.A. is sort of a fantasy for James, one that would require certain developments. Still, stranger things have happened in the NBA, and the league is headed for a very strange off-season.

MORE TRIANGLE NOTES

What did the Lakers learn about the triangle offense during Kobe Bryant’s recent injury time? I posed that question to center Pau Gasol.

Without Bryant, the team got a different view of the triangle and more opportunity to explore options, he replied. “We can search more into it.”

And learn different things. “The ball moves a little more,” Gasol said, echoing a frequent complaint that triangle guru Tex Winter used to make about Bryant. “We can search more through the triangle and we can get more options. It’s made for that.”

Gasol acknowledged that the team has a different relationship with the triangle this season, mainly because of new teammate Ron Artest.

“Ron is trying to figure out the triangle and where to be on the court and how to have an effect offensively,” Gasol remarked. “Little by little he’s getting there, and he’s doing a good job.”

THE SIMPLE MAN

For years now, Spurs center Tim Duncan has been a favorite of many of the NBA’s legends and retired greats such as 11-time Celtics champion Bill Russell.

“I had a nice little interview with Bill Russell, and he’s always told me that he’s a big fan of mine,” Duncan said. “That’s an incredible honor to hear that from someone like Bill Russell. That’s the main guy.”

Why do the legends prize his game so much, I asked Duncan. “Probably just the simplicity of my game,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to win four championships over the years with that simplicity. I hope that’s it.”

MAGIC

Magic Johnson continues to rave about the play of Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. I asked Durant about the props. “I’ve met Magic a couple of times,” he said, “and I really admire how much he loves the game. You can see it in how he speaks, how he carries himself when he talks about basketball… You watch old tapes of him, he’s always smiling and he’s always competitive. Hopefully, I’ll live up to that.”

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar13

The Era Of The Triangle Is Coming To A Close

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 13, 2010 – 10:55 am | Comments (3)
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Don’t cry for the Los Angeles Lakers just yet, but new forward Ron Artest has slowed up the team’s use of its famed triangle offense. That’s nothing new really. It always takes months, even years, for new players to find a comfort level in the controlled offense.

The Lakers knew that last summer when they signed Artest and passed on bringing back promising young forward Trevor Ariza. Artest brings plenty of defense to help make up for his deficits on offense. But the Lakers won the league championship last year in part because they were finally able to execute the complicated offense at a high level.

This year that simply hasn’t been the case. The offense requires that players be able to make sophisticated “reads” of the action to trigger facets of the offense. Artest simply isn’t ready to make many of those reads.

Lakers Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom report that the team hasn’t been able to use the more complex levels of the offense because Artest isn’t ready to go there.

Artest’s adjustment might have gone better if backup forward Luke Walton hadn’t been troubled by back problems. Although he’s faced consistency issues over the years, Walton has always been a smart passer and a key sub who makes the offense work. Walton’s absence for much of the season has made Artest’s protracted adjustment all the more painful, although there is some hope that Walton could return to action by the playoffs in April.

Usually in March, coach Phil Jackson’s teams are starting to round into major form, but the Lakers show some uncharacteristic signs of struggle this year down the stretch. A recent three-game losing streak has Lakers fans fussing that Jackson too long clings to veterans like 36-year-old guard Derek Fisher. Jackson likes Fisher, even at an advanced age, because of his competitiveness, his ability even still to pressure the ball on defense, and most of all, his knack for getting the team into the offense and guiding its execution.

Fans who complain about a Fisher or a Walton often miss the point. Jackson’s teams are always greater than the sum of their parts. That is the main power of the offense, it’s ability to create opportunity for lesser players. Jackson’s teams have always shown an ability to bind these lesser players with stars like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

Like other critics, Jordan himself once snidely derided the triangle as an “equal-opportunity offense” because it required that he share the ball with less talented teammates. But Jordan later said repeatedly that the offense gave his teams an operating format, one that allowed them to relate to each other and become champions.

The numbers back that up. In the 19 seasons that Jackson and triangle guru Tex Winter have employed the offense in the NBA, it has won 1,089 regular season games and lost just 453, an astounding winning percentage of .706.

The offense has been even more effective in the playoffs, where Jackson has used it to win 10 titles in those 19 seasons, with two more appearances in the league championship series. It has allowed Jackson to win 209 of the 300 playoff games he has coached. The Lakers recent troubles are unfortunate, because there’s more than a bit of pressure on the team this season, with Jackson’s future unclear because the team’s front office hasn’t offered him a contract.

Even if Jackson does coach the Lakers or some other team next season, it seems the remarkable run of the triangle offense is just about up, its era coming to a close. Tex Winter predicted as much a few years back.

Why? Other coaches have tried the offense in the NBA and failed famously because of the time commitment and learning curve for professional players. Only coaches with the stature of Jackson and Winter, supported by stars with the abilities of Jordan and Bryant, have made it a success. As tirelessly as he has promoted his offense over the decades, Winter himself would admit it’s an awkward fit with modern pro players.

MINDS MADE UP?

Back in 2004 when he was seething, Lakers owner Jerry Buss would have a few pops and tell anyone within earshot — even a Lakers beat reporter or two — how much he despised the triangle. Buss made it clear even to random strangers. He loved fast-break basketball ala the Lakers’ vintage Showtime teams, and he was tired of the unbalanced floor look that Jackson’s triangle teams employed.

Former Lakers VP Jerry West worked with Buss for years and knows him well. West says that when Buss makes up his mind on something, he rarely changes it.

Even though Jackson’s team had won three straight championships, 2000-2002, with the triangle, as soon as the Lakers stumbled in the 2004 championship series, the owner gave his approval for his son Jim Buss to fire Jackson as coach.

The triangle offense got a reprieve the next year when Buss abruptly rehired Jackson. Why did the Lakers owner relent and return to the triangle? 1) Because he faced a well-organized revolt by season ticket holders who demanded Jackson’s return; and 2) because Jim Buss’s hiring of Rudy Tomjanovich proved such a disaster, financially and competitively.

But six years later those basic feelings of the Lakers owner haven’t changed. Buss and his son have held off on making Jackson a contract offer for next year, and they’ve implied they want him to take a pay cut from his $12 million salary.

The circumstances mean that the 2010 playoffs are a referendum on the offense pioneered by longtime Jackson assistant Tex Winter. If Jackson somehow drives the Lakers to a repeat of their 2009 NBA championship, then the Busses may begrudgingly invite Jackson back for a shot at a three-peat.

One key inside observer says Jerry and Jim Buss are calculating that fans won’t mind if Jackson doesn’t return next year, that there won’t be a revolt by season ticket holders this time around.

It seems showtime vs. triangle are the competing visions for the team, with former Lakers greats and some factions in the front office feeding the desire of Jim and Jerry Buss to move away from the formula that has won four championships over the past decade.

At the center of the controversy is the development of young center Andrew Bynum. The Busses have great belief in his future, and they have articulated a beef that Jackson doesn’t have a reputation for developing young players.

It’s certainly true that Jackson prefers to rely on veterans to run his teams, just as it’s true that Winter himself upbraided Jackson about his handling of a young Kobe Bryant. But the Busses might be overlooking Jackson’s track record for developing players such as Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant in Chicago, where Jackson guided the Bulls to six championships.

Another irony in the Buss opposition is that the triangle, or “triple-post” offense as it is also called, is great for getting the ball to post scorers, such as Shaquille O’Neal or Bynum.

Critics such as Orlando Magic assistant coach Brendan Malone, who has battled Jackson’s triangle teams many times over the years, point out that the Lakers defeated the Magic in last year’s championship because they used the screen and roll to devastating effect, rather than the triangle.

But Winter has long countered that the triangle gives teams a basic philosophy from which to operate. That means a triangle team can use its format to employ screen and roll, fast breaks, or any other number of offensive looks at any time, Winter has explained.

“The triangle is a philosophy for playing the game that allows you to just about use whatever you need in any given circumstance,” Winter once explained. The 88-year-old Winter continues to recover in Oregon from the effects of a stroke suffered last April and may soon move back to Kansas, where he enjoyed years as a highly successful college coach.

For all of Jackson’s 18 NBA coaching seasons, Winter has been a strong presence with his teams, alternately teaching and sternly correcting players who violate the principles of his offense. In all of those seasons, Winter has been an infectious promoter of the offense he developed. He has not been able to fill that role this season, leaving Jackson to press on without him.

HALL OF FAME?

Like his offense itself, Winter also faces a referendum this spring as he attempts yet again to gain election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. His name has been put into nomination many times, but he has been turned down because the bulk of his NBA experience has been as an assistant coach hired as a mentor for a younger coach, Jackson. Winter has a brilliant record as a coach for several colleges, most notably Kansas State where his teams were among the nation’s best for a number of years.

USA Basketball’s Jerry Colangelo says the Hall of Fame is trying to expand its scope to take in a rare and special genius like Winter. But this year’s field of Hall nominees is crowded with excellent players, coaches and teams and Winter once again faces uphill odds for selection. Hall of Famers Bill Walton and Magic Johnson both said Winter deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, as have many others.

Walton pointed out that generations of players have absolutely loved playing for the passionate Winter. Walton also said that of the special generation of coaches who competed against and successfully challenged John Wooden, Winter is the only major figure yet to be named to the Hall. At a time that the highly successful offense he created is being challenged, Winter is without voice to speak up for it or himself.

Jackson, though, has been diligently coaching in his absence, and although Winter’s strong presence has been missed, if the Lakers find success this post-season it could well mean yet another season for the offense.

Otherwise, this could be one of the last pro seasons for the triangle system, which is still used in pieces at some colleges, mostly by women’s teams at Tennessee and Connecticut. Winter has long predicted that his system wouldn’t be used much beyond his and Jackson’s tenure as coaches. A basketball visionary in so many ways, Winter also seems to have a clear view of the future for a system he created.

Roland Lazenby is the author of “Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon,” recently released by ESPN Books.

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Mar6

Sometimes Things Get Overlooked

posted by Roland Lazenby | March 6, 2010 – 5:55 am | Comments (1)
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It’s amazing that in 1907 a Harvard-educated African-American man could get thrown out of Washington, D.C.’s Central YMCA for simply wanting to watch a basketball game.
That fact, in itself, gives modern folks a fairly good idea of the territory Americans have covered over the past century.
It’s not like we should consider congratulating ourselves on that journey, which we so often do.
Rather, it’s time to stop and honor those — such as Edward Bancroft Henderson, the 24-year-old man who got tossed that night — who actually went out and did something about it.
More than 100 years ago, Henderson formed a league for black players. We might never know about him if not for an astoundingly good book from Bob Kuska, “Hot Potato.”
Sadly, like these early pioneers of the game, Kuska’s book itself has been overlooked. A great and important read, Hot Potato was published in hardcover in 2004 and later in paperback by the University of Virginia Press.
Over the past century, African-Americans have taken ownership of the game and done some pretty special things with that ownership.
If you love the brotherhood (or sisterhood) of hoops, then you have to get a copy of Kuska’s book.
It should be required reading for every sportswriter, every broadcaster, every millionaire NBA star, every coach, everyone who purports to love the game we have today.
It would be a great book for Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or Michael Jordan — as he prepares to take over ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats.
Those guys are the leaders of the game in the new century. How much better their vision will be if they take the time to consider the efforts of Henderson and his contemporaries.

And while we’re honoring Henderson, wouldn’t it be nice if Washington’s Central YMCA put a plaque on the wall to recognize his contributions to the game? The NBA should also do something.

You better scramble if you really care about Hot Potato, there are simply not a lot of copies of this treasure in print.

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Potato-Washington-Basketball-Americas/dp/0813925568/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267883153&sr=1-1

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.

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