This is a very long and in detail breakdown from Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski of why Phil Jackson isn’t the head coach of the Lakers right now.
But, this one nugget caught my attention.
It is well known that Carmelo Anthony and D’Antoni did not get along. Melo and Kobe are good friends, so it isn’t surprising that Melo expressed his frustration to Kobe which led to this exchange.
When everything had become too hard with the New York Knicks, D’Antoni walked into the office one morning and surrendered. Carmelo Anthony had stopped listening to him, stopped running his plays, and ownership never supported the coach. When Anthony grumbled to Bryant about D’Antoni’s defensive acumen on a trip to Los Angeles before the coach’s resignation in New York, one witness says Bryant shot back to Anthony – only half-kidding – that, seriously, when the hell have you ever played defense?
There are uninformed fans that are comparing Kobe to Carmelo. That is an insult to Kobe Bryant. Carmelo is a very good player and maybe in time he becomes a great player, but Kobe is a legend.
He also respects Mike D’Antoni, so don’t expect him to turn on D’Antoni like Melo did.
We will be on the look out though for DEATH STARES.