Since Phil Jackson left town after the 2011-12 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled somewhat to find their way on the coaching front. Going with the man who’d previously coached LeBron James, Mike Brown, didn’t work, and the Mike D’Antoni experiment seemed doomed from the start.
Now, for all of his faults, the Lakers have a member of the family on the bench in Byron Scott. And part-owner and vice-president Jim Buss says that’s what differentiates Scott from his predecessor’s in Buss’ eyes, via the LA Times:
“He has the Laker blood in him,” Buss said. “[Mike] D’Antoni and Mike Brown, they weren’t Lakers. They loved the Lakers and they tried their best and I think they’re both great coaches.
“I’ll take blame for that, but there was a lot of people, including my father [the late Jerry Buss] and Mitch [Kupchak], who were in favor of these changes. But it feels like we’ve righted the ship. We’ve got the coach, we’ve got the players.”
Buss also told the Times’ Eric Pincus that he has no regrets about his famous declaration that if the team didn’t get back to its winning ways soon, he’d step aside. He also noted that the team plans to approach this season as if it is Kobe Bryant’s last, but that doesn’t mean that it will, in fact, be his last.