Kurt Rambis reportedly has assumed an increasingly powerful voice in basketball operationsNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
Talks between the Lakers and Tyronn Lue have "ended without an agreement to make him the franchise's next head coach," according to sources cited by Wojnarowski & McMenamin of ESPN.com. The Lakers yesterday "offered Lue a deal in the range" of three years and $18M, after which Lue's side "pulled out of negotiations." Sources said that Lue's camp was "seeking a five-year deal with a salary commensurate with a championship resume." Sources added that beyond an "inability to agree on contractual terms, the Lakers had proposed several scenarios involving their preferred candidates for assistant coaches, including Jason Kidd." Lakers Senior Basketball Adviser Kurt Rambis reportedly has "assumed an increasingly powerful voice in basketball operations and has played a central role in the coaching search." His wife, Lakers Exec Dir of Special Projects Linda Rambis, also "works closely" with Controlling Owner & CEO Jeanie Buss (ESPN.com, 5/8). In L.A., Bill Plaschke writes the fact that Lue would rather stay unemployed "speaks to the depths of dysfunction" in the Lakers' basketball operations, and it "screams of the leadership void" under Buss. The Lakers are "becoming a wasteland," so maybe the departed Magic Johnson "knew exactly what he was doing." In GM Rob Pelinka's "first test as the full-time basketball boss, he flunked" (L.A. TIMES, 5/9).
A KURT RESPONSE: FS1's Nick Wright cited a source as saying that the Buss family and Pelinka "signed off on hiring" Lue last week. However, Kurt and Linda Rambis were the "only parties opposed, and convinced the Lakers to hold off" (TWITTER.com, 5/8). Wright later said on the air, "What the hell does Kurt Rambis know about NBA coaching?” (“First Things First,” FS1, 5/9). ESPN’s Max Kellerman said of Rambis, “It doesn't make you a laughingstock if some former player is really having an influence on his former organization. ... What makes you a laughingstock is if that guy doesn't know what he's doing” (“First Take,” ESPN, 5/9). ESPN’s Mike Golic Jr.: “When you look around the NBA and you see it’s another one of Jeanie Buss' friends or someone close to them in the organization ... from an outsider's perspective, it’s going to be, ‘Same old Lakers’” (“Golic & Wingo,” ESPN Radio, 5/9). ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: “They're a disaster. ... They've been dysfunctional for years” (“First Take,” ESPN, 5/9).
BUSS FARE: THE ATHLETIC's Bill Oram wrote the Lakers' failure to land their top coaching candidates in Lue and new Suns coach Monty Williams is "on Jeanie Buss." With the "embarrassments continuing to pile up, what more does she need to see before recognizing that the pals she has empowered to direct the franchise's future are failing her?" Kurt and Linda Rambis have been "front and center in the dysfunction." But no one "bears more responsibility than Pelinka and the owner who has neglected to give him legitimate help" (THEATHLETIC.com, 5/8). In California, Jim Alexander writes the Lakers run their business with an "acumen that makes the corner grocery, the stereotypical mom and pop business, look impeccably organized" (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 5/9).ESPN’s Trey Wingo: “You could make a good argument that close to a year after when they got LeBron, every part of that organization might actually be worse. … This can't be run like a mom and pop shop. This has to be run like what it is, a multibillion-dollar franchise that should be the gold standard for what a basketball team should be” (“Golic & Wingo,” ESPN Radio, 5/9). ESPN’s Seth Greenberg said, “Who is the one person that can step up in that organization and say, ‘This is the direction we’re going, this is how we’re going and this is what we’re doing?’ When you have 10 voices, you have no voice” (“Get Up,” ESPN, 5/9).
