THURSDAY, 12:01pm: Scott confirmed that the interview took place, as he said this morning on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Frank Isola and Malik Rose, notes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Scott spoke with co-owner Jim Buss as well as GM Mitch Kupchak, while rival Lakers coaching candidate Mike Dunleavy interviewed only with Kupchak, Medina points out.
“I had a great time talking with those guys,” Scott said. “Obviously I go way back with Mitch. We were teammates for a while and won a couple of championships together, so it was good. That’s basically all I can tell you. It was good, I had a lot of fun talking to them. Hopefully we’ll be talking again soon and we’ll see what happens.”
WEDNESDAY, 8:14am: The Lakers interviewed Byron Scott for their head coaching position on Tuesday, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Scott is one of the many candidates being considered to replace former coach Mike D’Antoni.
In 13 seasons as a head coach, Scott has a record of 416-521. He last coached the Cavaliers during the 2012/13 season, leading the team to a 24-58 record before being fired.
It’s likely that Jerry Buss would have hired Scott as the Lakers head coach instead of Mike Brown when Phil Jackson retired in 2011, writes Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. But Scott was coaching the Cavs at the time.
Mike Dunleavy, who is also a candidate, interviewed with GM Mitch Kupchak as well, tweets Arash Markazi of ESPN.com.