Former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, who is currently a broadcaster for ABC/ESPN, has interviewed for the Lakers‘ head coaching vacancy, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (Twitter link).
Jackson compiled a 121-109 record in three seasons with the Warriors from 2011-14, reaching the postseason twice. He’s a finalist for the lead coaching job in Sacramento, and reportedly the favored choice of the team’s owner. One report stated that the Kings are expected to select their new coach by the end of the week.
A report last month from Sam Amick of The Athletic indicated that LeBron James would be “very enthused” to see Jackson become the Lakers’ next coach, though James also favored Tyronn Lue and Jason Kidd before the team ended up hiring Frank Vogel in 2019. L.A. won the championship in Vogel’s first year, but he was fired after the team had a disappointing season in 2021/22, finishing with a 33-49 record.
The Lakers anticipate they’ll interview eight-to-10 candidates for the position via Zoom before narrowing down their list, tweets ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. The interviews are being conducted by the Buss family, GM Rob Pelinka and senior advisor Kurt Rambis.
Although the search has picked up steam this week, it’s still considered to be in the early stages, per The Athletic’s Bill Oram (Twitter link). In case you missed it, the team also interviewed former Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts.
Coach Jackson doesn’t need the drama that goes along with the Lakers job. Dysfunctional management team, Klutch / Lebron interference. Taking over an underwhelming roster, with no financial flexibility, no bench, stuck with Westbrook for another year. Really, who will take him. Hey , even- yes, I’ll say it, Sacramento is a better job. At least they have pieces.. you know you’re taking over a bad team…
Saying that Sacramento’s is a better coaching job than any other sounds strange, but I have to agree, and I think any of the candidates would happily choose the Kings over the Lakers if salaries were equal.
@Basketball
He’s a Klutch client.
Dude hasn’t coached since 2014. He isn’t some hot commodity. Lakers will be fine if he goes elsewhere
Lakers need some toughness, Boylen is the answer.
Who’s Boylen?
Jim boylen.former bulls hc. We hate him so much and called him egg head
Steve 4 : lol…u made my day…every bulls fans hope lakers take him as their hc..lmao…
That would be hilarious. Lol
And hairless.
And I could careless
Fit seamlessly
As we can see this year, & I have been saying for many years, LAL would had been a much better team if they would ever listen to The King & had hired J-Kidd 3 years ago instead of Vogel… what could have been & never will be!
The Lakers deserve their fate. Randle, Ingram, Ball, Russell, Kuzma, Hart Horton, etc Is a great team. AD is soft Lebron is old and Westbrick is crazy.
I agree, they gave up a ton of talent….All because of Lebron coming to town…Ok they got one championship in the bubble, but it’s over…next year they are not getting past, Warriors, Suns, Retooled Mavs, a healthy Denver, Memphis, New Orleans with healthy Zion…Did I forget any other team… They may have to trade one of the stars to retool and play the long game… They have no future #1 picks until 2027/2029. WHAT A MESS?
Maybe the Jazz and if the Clippers get healthy that would be two more. So many contending teams in the west it’s tough to remember them all.
@Basketball
I’m really tired of ppl using the covid “bubble season ” as if it’s an advance for specific teams. The nba did a GREAT job of making sure that ALL teams played under the same EXACT situations. None of them had to worry about travel. None held a home court advantage. Ppl act as if the season didn’t count and the Lakers chip was less than all other seasons. You think the Lakers wouldn’t have had an advantage over Miami at home games?
You can discount it if you want to but the fact is that the Suns, Memphis, New Orleans and Denver should give their left nut to win their 1st title and the Mavs would likely relish winning their 2nd title. It worked… bringing in Lebron and AD brought you back from irrelevancy and brought them their first title since 2010.
Every team has to deal with their aging starters and rebuilding.
GREAT post. Any team in the NBA would gladly give up years of draft picks for a title (the Kings franchise last won when they were the Rochester Royals seventy years ago, the Knicks 49 years ago, the Hawks about 65 years ago in St. Louis, the Jazz, Clippers, Grizzlies,Sun,etc NEVER). Vogel coached an NBA championship, Don Nelson never did.
@Spike
ummm… ok forget the redundancy in position I guess. But guess who won a title? Soooo stop complaining.
Randle- Overpaid
Ball- Hurt
Russell- over rated
Kuzma- Was killed by 99% of this board last year endlessly
Tht- Always good to end on a joke
That teams lucky to ever make the 2nd Rd before a proper a### Whuippin
Consolidation of some sorts was always in the cards. If anything all this shows is the Lakers have a top tier scouting department in the building
Losing out on quality vets like KCP Kuzma and Caruso is where you should be directing your troll if your looking for effectiveness
Ill gladly take #17 in the rafters than that peas and mashed potatoes group
It’s crazy how a team can win a chip and be thought of as a failure a few years later. Winning it all aint easy to do.
Talent is nice. But so is winning. Not every team has players like the Warriors in Steph, Klay, and Draymond as draft picks. And as skilled as the players traded are, they aren’t carrying their current teams. Ingram being the best player, he is still 2nd or 3rd in the depth chart now with McCollum and if Zion decides to be serious about basketball. If you ask any other team “you make this trade, and you win a title in 1 or 2 years”, they would definitely take it.