Hey, Magic! You ever heard the phrase, "Don't walk around like your shit don't stink?"
Earlier today, good ole ESPN reported that Los Angeles Lakers' GM Magic Johnson "admonished" Head Coach Luke Walton at a meeting in response to the Lakers' 3-5 start to the season. Eight games into the season with almost an entirely new roster, Luke Walton is on the hot-seat. Why, you ask? Cause its always the coaches fault in the NBA. Let's be real here. The Lakers' roster is gross. I mean "Michael Carter Williams won rookie of the year?" gross. You're telling me that a team whose depth at the center position consists of JaVale McGee, Ivica Zubac, and Moritz Wagner is supposed to be better than 3-5. Yes, yes... they have LeBron, but unless you've been under the rock for the past 15 years, you should know LeBron needs shooters to win. He needs the Mike Miller's and Ray Allen's of the world, not Lance Stephenson and Rajon Rondo; but, was it the coach who put these bums around LeBron? No, it was Magic Johnson, the guy who is currently blaming the head coach for the mess he made. Now to be fair, Magic didn't hire Walton, but he did tweet this out after the hiring:
Don't get the wrong impression here. I love Magic. Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals is a great fucking documentary, but we're talking about Magic Johnson the GM, not the player. It sucks that Magic is the one I'm attacking when in fact there are plenty of guys I could point out, but its the recency factor.
The front offices of NBA teams have a serious issue with handling their coaches. For example, prior to the 2016-17 season, Dave Joerger was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies. This is a guy who served as assistant coach of the team for 6 years before his promotion. Then, as head coach, he led the Grizz to the playoffs two years in a row, losing in the first round his first season and losing to the NBA Champion Warriors the next year after going 55-27. Pretty solid job, right? Not to the front office who proceeded to fire him after taking a Conley and Gasol-less squad to the playoffs.
I sniffed bullshit then and I sniff it now. Unfortunately by the end of this season, Luke Walton will most likely not be the head coach of the Lakers, and that sucks. Is it because LeBron is a coach-killer? Well, yes... but it's also because NBA front offices suck. Except the Celtics, because they taught us if you really want to get rid of a coach, you trade him for a 1st-round pick.
