I think that the Lakers organization run almost everything by star player Kobe Bryant. The infamous death stare spoke volumes, and to no surprise Kobe is publicly endorsing Phil Jackson to replace Mike Brown as the Lakers head coach.
“Phil, obviously, you guys know how I feel about Phil,” Bryant said. “The one thing that’s kind of always bothered me is that his last year, I wasn’t able to give him my normal self because I was playing on one leg. That’s always kind of eaten away at me that the last year of his career, I wasn’t able to give him everything I had. He’s too great of a coach to go out that way,” Bryant said. “That’s kind of my personal sentiment.”
“He teaches us the little nuances, the details, the intricacies of the game that just a lot of people just don’t know,” Bryant said. “It’s no fault of their own. When it comes to basketball, he’s a genius level. So it’s tough for anybody to step in those shoes afterwards from players that were raised underneath that tutelage.”
That last quote seems like a direct shot at former coach Mike Brown. As the coach with the most championships in NBA history Phil Jackson is a nearly impossible act to follow, and something Mike Brown just wasn’t able to do.
Kobe wants to right the ship. He doesn’t want the Zen master to leave the game permanently on a 2nd round play-off sweep, and honestly, I don’t think Phil wants to either.