Amidst all the brouhaha of Mike D’Antoni’s hiring as Laker coach, ESPN L.A.’s Ramona Shelburne dropped this little bomb.
Source tells ESPNLA that Phil Jackson was prepared to accept the Lakers job if negotiations went well with his agent on Mon
— ramonashelburne (@ramonashelburne) November 12, 2012
Wow.
As for Phil Jackson’s reaction? Shelburne has that, too, for us.
Source says Phil Jackson was “stunned” when he was informed the Lakers had chosen D’Antoni. Had been told it was his job to turn down
— ramonashelburne (@ramonashelburne) November 12, 2012
Phil Jackson had quite a set of demands for the job. He wasn’t a big fan of the travel so I’m sure there were concessions being made in these negotiations. Jackson wanted Jim Buss’ power relinquished from the team and wanted a lot of say in terms of player personnel. He wanted an ownership stake of the team. Ad, of course, money was also a factor in the dealings. All of these demands were unprecedented so instead of dealing through all of those, the Laker front office decided to go with Steve Nash’s old coach in Phoenix, D’Antoni.
I’m pretty sure some (a lot?) of Laker fans will get irritated that the Busses and Kupchak didn’t wait one more day in this coaching search. Some think D’Antoni is a poor fit for this Laker team but I think the Lakers got the next best thing.
D’Antoni should be making his Laker coaching debut on Friday (if he’s cleared medically) against, of all the teams, Phoenix.