Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is a GREAT Job....(isn't It?)
It's a s----y job for anybody. Your authority is completely undermined by an aged-out primadonna superstar, with your bosses' full approval, no less. You work for ignorant fools, you tenure here will be full of pain, and when you invariably fail, you will be run out of town on pitchforks, tarred and feathered.
That's from a fan and it's the not first time I've read (or posted) something similar. Pretty sure we've all heard something along these lines from the talking heads and the trash talkers.
Frustrations and smack talking aside, is there a there here? This should be one of the premier positions in all of sports, but it it really?
- The Lakers looking for their 7th full time head coach in 11 years
- From 1960 - 2011, the Lakers had never gone more than 5 years without finding a long term coach (300+ games). It's been 13 years and they still haven't found one.
- The Lakers have a reputation for not paying their head coaches top-of-the-market salaries (Phil Jackson and his titles notwithstanding).
- The team itself may well be in sports purgatory: not good enough to advance, but too good for the lottery and too capped to make deals.
Yikes, that's not good. Maybe there is a there here...or maybe not.
- The Lakers have never hesitated to pull the trigger on coaches. Mike Dunleavy, Randy Pfund and Del Harris (who had some success with the team) were unceremoniously let go for just not being good enough.
- Great coaches don't grow on trees - only 6 in Lakers franchise history have coached 300+ games (35 league wide). The Lakers may just have been fortunate to have found Pat Riley and that Jackson was available (and dating the owner).
- It's the nature of the beast - NBA coaches turnover. A lot.
- The Lakers may have limited options to improve, but if Russell leaves, they'll at least be under the projected 1st tax apron for next season. That means they can still receive a player via sign-n-trade (hard cap notwithstanding) or receive up to 125% of contract value in a trade.
So yeah...head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is still a great job. I think?
