Skip to main content

Lakers legend Phil Jackson has been in contact with Jeanie Buss all season regarding team matters, per report


 


The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a much-needed win on Saturday night, coming back from a 14-point deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors and snap a four-game losing streak. LeBron James led the way with 56 points, setting a new high for his Lakers tenure, and for one night at least there were good vibes around the team. 


Based on how this season has transpired, though, it was always only a matter of time before the drama started up again. And it has on Monday in a rather unexpected way. As it turns out, former Lakers head coach Phil Jackson has quietly been in contact with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss (also his former fiancée) all season long regarding team matters, according to Sam Amick and Bill Oram of The Athletic. 


Sources say Jackson, the Lakers legend and ex-fiancé of Buss, whose presence at Saturday's win against Golden State was highlighted by the team's Twitter account, has been in frequent contact with Buss about team matters all season long. The complicated and often uncomfortable dynamics surrounding the [Russell] Westbrook situation, in particular, are known to have drawn his interest. As unofficial consultants go, they don't get much more experienced or credible than Jackson.


Truth be told, Buss' desire to hear Jackson's point of view on this team should surprise no one. Especially because of his close ties with [Kurt] Rambis, who -- like [Rob] Pelinka with [Kobe] Bryant -- has the kind of close connection with Jackson that has long been considered a factor when it comes to his own stature.


Jackson, who lives in Los Angeles during the winter months as a respite from his Montana home base, has been extremely close with Rambis for decades. They coached together during two of Jackson's five Lakers titles (2002 and 2009), then came close to reuniting in 2012 when then-Lakers executives Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss stunned the NBA world by picking Mike D'Antoni instead.


It's hard to know exactly what to make of this revelation without knowing more about Jackson's involvement. Is he simply a sounding board for Buss, someone he's had a very close relationship with for a long time? Or has he unofficially been influencing team decisions? 


The note regarding his interest in the Russell Westbrook situation is particularly interesting given recent reports that higher ups in the Lakers front office have been pushing for Westbrook to be removed from the starting lineup -- something head coach Frank Vogel has reportedly resisted. It would certainly be notable if Jackson played a part in those discussions. 


We also cannot ignore the contentious past relationship between Jackson and LeBron, which stems from a 2016 incident in which Jackson called LeBron's friends and business associates a "posse." LeBron responded by later saying "I'm not a fan of Phil Jackson." Again, we don't know Jackson's level of influence, nor what LeBron thinks of it, but it's hard to imagine he's thrilled. 


While you can understand why Buss would reach out to Jackson, the shadowy aspect of his influence is just not what this team needs right now. 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Deep: At long last, Nikola Jokic's Nuggets can envision getting to the top of the mountain

  Jamal Murray tore his ACL on April 12, 2021. Leading up to that night, he'd been playing at an All-NBA level for two months: In a 25-game stretch, Murray averaged 24.1 points on .509/.459/.935 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He was even more efficient than he was in the bubble playoffs, and his defense had improved, too. Murray only got to play with Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets' big trade-deadline addition, for five games. They won them all except the one in which Murray got injured. In 110 minutes, their new starting five scored slightly more efficiently than any iteration of the Kevin Durant-era death lineup in Golden State and defended like a top-five team. Two Nikola Jokic MVP awards later, Murray is back. So is Michael Porter Jr., who signed a five-year extension about a year ago and needed back surgery nine games into the 2020-21 season. The Nuggets remember how easily everything slid into place with Gordon in the mix. Newcomer Kentavious Caldwell-Pop...
Post a Comment
Read more

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

  Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

LeBron James says he has 'no relationship' with Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  It's not a matter of if LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list, it's when. James sits just 1,326 points away from passing the Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend, a milestone that should happen at some point this season given James is still performing at peak levels and is coming off a year in which he averaged over 30 points a night. If he averages around the same amount of points as he did a season ago for the Lakers, James could break the record somewhere in the middle of the season, assuming he stays healthy. It's a highly anticipated moment heading into the season, but in regards to LeBron's thoughts about and his relationship with Abdul-Jabbar, he didn't have much to say on the matter. Following the Lakers first preseason game Monday night, a reporter asked James what his thoughts were on the Lakers legend and if the two had any relationship, to which LeBron gave a very short answer. "No...
Post a Comment
Read more