Sports World Reacts to Hiring of Mike Brown

Michael Goldsholl: LakersNation: “Around 10 p.m. last night, the noise in Los Angeles started getting louder, with a sound of Mike Brown being hired as the next head coach of the Lakers. Almost immediately, the majority of my Lakers fan friends proceeded to bash the unofficial decision, citing reasons such as, “[Rick] Adelman would have been a better choice,” or “Wow, I can’t believe the Lakers are going to play Brian Shaw like this.”

Darius Soriano: Forum Blue and Gold: “Phil Jackson long credited Tex Winter for the success of his Bulls and early Laker teams. More recently, assistant coaches Kurt Rambis, Brian Shaw, and Chuck Person have been crucial contributors in helping the Lakers win championships (not to mention long time assistants Jim Cleamons and Frank Hamblen). Looking beyond the Lakers, Jerry Sloan and Phil Johnson were a true partnership on the Jazz; Doc Rivers and Jeff Van Gundy would certainly sing the praises of Tom Thibodeau when he was an assistant for the Celtics and Rockets respectively.”

Daniel Barber: Yahoo! Sports: “Jim Buss and the Los Angeles Lakers made a huge mistake on Wednesday, May 25 in hiring Mike Brown as the new head coach of the franchise—and not for the many reasons laid out by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, who makes a case that Kobe Bryant should have been at least to some degree consulted on the hire before it happened—but simply because Brown isn’t the answer for any franchise.”

John Krolik: New York Times: “When the Lakers decided to replace the greatest coach of the modern era with one of the most widely maligned coaches of a contending team in recent memory, plenty of eyebrows were raised.”

David Steele: Sporting News: “Mike Brown rides into Hollywood on an enormous wave of … indifference. If not skepticism. Or, from an alarmingly large and vocal segment of fans, outright anger. Him? Coaching the almighty Los Angeles Lakers? That’s the best they could do?What a letdown. What a pathetic compromise. One lousy trip to the NBA Finals in five years as a head coach; only 127 wins in his last two regular seasons; only one Coach of the Year award; and only the fifth-best win percentage (.663) among all the men who have coached more than one season in the NBA.”

Kurt Helin: Pro Basketball Talk: “That’s not all of it — all accounts around the league are that Mike Brown gives good job interview, and his defense-first philosophy is a good fit — but not being part of the Phil Jackson coaching tree mattered. This was Jim Buss’ move to assert himself in the organization, to make his mark. And part of that was breaking from Jackson, who Buss did not get along with. At all. Jackson said they spoke once all season.”