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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Pau Gasol left his exit meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak on Tuesday with an increased sense that he may have played his last game with the Lakers.

“The future is uncertain,” Gasol said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s a possibility that I could be gone and there’s a possibility that I could stay. I don’t know the exact percentages of it. But I’m prepared for either way.

“I understand the challenges that the franchise is facing, the decisions that they have to make in order to keep the team in the direction that they want to -- looking at the present and the future and also understanding the business side of it. So, it’s a lot going on. I wish things were a little simpler, but they’re not. So we’ll see.”

If the Lakers keep next season's payroll at about $100 million, as it was in 2012-13, the team would owe about $85 million in additional luxury-tax penalties because of the more punitive stipulations in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.

Could Gasol and the rest of the Lakers' major pieces all be back next season? Kupchak said that possibility is “in play.”

“We haven’t ruled anything out as of now,” he said.

Yet Kupchak used similar language to admit that the opposite is also a possibility: "When you lose, everybody is in play ... whether it's Pau or anybody else, we'll look for ways to improve the team."

Gasol's contract has one year remaining at $19.3 million. From a financial perspective, the assumption was that the Lakers would try to trade his expiring deal or opt to use their one-time amnesty provision on the 12-year veteran.

“(Kupchak) couldn’t really tell me, ‘Hey, thanks for everything you’ve done, it’s more likely you’re going to be gone,’ or no, ‘Don’t worry about it, you’re going to stay here. We’re going to make it happen,’” Gasol said. “Which is to be expected. I appreciate Mitch’s honesty and everything that he’s done and the franchise has done for the last two years to keep me here and have me on the team.”

The two-year time frame Gasol was referring to started with his nearly being traded and has included a second-round exit from the playoffs last season, coach Mike Brown's being fired early this season, and a first-round sweep at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs last week.

Gasol, who turns 33 in July, said his experience with the Lakers changed significantly after the three-way trade between the Lakers, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Hornets was vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern on the eve of the first day of training camp for the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The light bulbs on the scoreboard showing the Los Angeles Lakers' 103-82 season-ending loss to the San Antonio Spurs had barely cooled down before they got together one last time to sort through the rubble of their disappointing 2012-13 campaign before saying goodbye for the summer.

The Lakers conducted exit interviews for nine of their 15 players on Monday, with the rest to come on Tuesday.

Here's a recap of what each player had to say to the media, in chronological order, after meeting with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak on Monday.

CHRIS DUHON
Synopsis: Duhon finished with 11 points and seven assists, playing a whopping (and game-high) 43 minutes in Game 4 against San Antonio because of how depleted the Lakers' roster was after not receiving consistent playing time since January.

Lakers future: Duhon is set to make $3.9 million next season if L.A. keeps him around. The more likely scenario is the Lakers buy him out for the $1.5 million that's partially guaranteed in his contract and go their separate ways. "We’re going to talk," Duhon said. "I’ll be here all summer. I’ll be engaged. I have until June 30 for them to pick up my option. We talked about it, and that’s what it is. It’s talk. I’ll be here, we’ll be in contact and whatever decision they make, we’re going to make that decision and go from there."

On Dwight Howard: "I think he’s learned from Orlando, like I’ve always told him, ‘Do what’s best for you.’ Do what’s best for you and your family, whatever makes you happy and keep that to yourself. He’s always been a people-pleaser, always trying to go out into the media and get the media on his side, [but] for him, it’s about him and his family. What makes Dwight happy, that’s what he needs to do. Whatever makes Dwight happy. … He can be happy here in L.A. Why not? This is a great city, a great town. Obviously, it’s an organization with a great tradition and pride, and he should be one of those guys that eventually will get a statue here."

Best quote: On why the Lakers had trouble establishing an identity -- "Injuries, two coaches in one year, not a training camp, injuries, injuries again, another injury. … I mean, I think probably every member on this team has been injured and missed a game this year. I've never experienced that in my nine years in this league. I think we had five guys have major surgeries. This has been a wacky year."

METTA WORLD PEACE
Synopsis: World Peace limped into the practice facility after missing the second half of Game 3 and all of Game 4 after getting a cyst in his left leg drained. He was generally in good spirits, even wearing a Cookie Monster T-Shirt in an ode to a bizarre off-court incident that happened back in February.

Lakers future: World Peace has a player option for $7.7 million. If he exercises it, he could become an easy target for the Lakers' amnesty clause. "You never know, anything could happen," World Peace said. He added he "definitely" wants to be a Laker in 2013-14. "I'm very competitive, so when you lose with a team, you want to win with that team," he said. "The only thing on my mind is winning, and winning here."

On Dwight Howard: "It took me a bit to get used to his personality, but once I was around him a lot -- we sat together on the plane -– once I got the chance to know him a little bit, it was an easy adjustment. He played hard. His personality was just different than everybody was used to.

"He’s just different. He’s always happy for the most part. In games, he’s really serious; not all the time, sometimes. But when it’s like crunch time, he’s very serious. Pregame, the locker room is very at ease. So you got to get used to a franchise player like that."

Injury outlook: World Peace returned to the lineup just 12 days after left knee surgery, but still needs the summer to get back to 100 percent. "As of right now, I'll just take six weeks and heal up," World Peace said, citing the original time frame of play he was expected to miss.

Best quote: On Washington Wizards center Jason Collins' decision to announce that he is gay -- "You should be free to act and do what you want to do as long as it's not violent, no matter what it is. I came here in a Cookie Monster shirt because I wanted to. And I was going to wear the pants, but I thought you guys were going to judge me. And I was going to wear the hat too, but I figured you guys were going to judge me and I didn't want Mitch to judge me. So that's why I didn't wear the hat and the pants, but I should have wore it. You should be free to do and act how you want to act.

"When you can feel comfortable with yourself, not only does it make you a better person, it's unnecessary stress. As we all know, if you're holding things in it can create unnecessary stress to your heart, to your mind and when you can release it and talk about it, you feel better. That's how it should be with anything. Not just coming out if you're gay or if you have a mental issue, or whatever other issue or stigma you have out there, you feel better."

STEVE NASH
Synopsis: The season was a nightmare for Nash, bookended by a broken leg and a bothersome hip and hamstring, but he still appreciated the Lakers life after being on the other side for so long as a rival. "It was an amazing experience to play for this franchise and for this fan base," Nash said. "I think that's the one thing that burns me right now, that it didn't go the way I envisioned. I really wanted to have a huge impact on the team and really make this an incredible year and experience for the fans, players and everybody involved. So, great experience for me, I'm really thrilled to be a part of the franchise and just hope that next year we can repay everybody for their loyalty and their enthusiasm."

Lakers future: Nash has two years and $19 million remaining on his contract with the Lakers. He's set to play seasons Nos. 18 and 19 of his career in L.A.

Injury outlook: Nash missed the final two games of the playoffs with a right hip injury and nerve damage in his right hamstring, which required four epidural injections and a cortisone shot in the last two weeks. But the 39-year-old is already on the mend. "I'm not going to take any time off," Nash said. "I'm going to start rehabbing right away and try to get right." Nash estimated it would take a month to get back to 100 percent and added, "I don't have any concern and I haven't gotten wind from anyone on the medical staff that there's concern for long-term issues or for next season to be in jeopardy. But I still have a little bit of work to do to get right."

Best quote: On the team camaraderie, or lack thereof -- "In the big picture, I think relationships were formed, relationships were kept and developed that were really positive. I think that's the only reason we didn't sputter out of control and find ourselves out of the playoffs."

More to come. For more on the day, read this story featuring World Peace and Nash's thoughts on Howard.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Lakers might have been the only NBA team without a representative at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston over the weekend, but general manager Mitch Kupchak says that will change in the future.

"We have our reasons [for not attending] that we'll keep internal," Kupchak told ESPNLosAngeles.com before the Lakers played the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday. "We'll get some feedback and send someone next year."

Kupchak said that the Lakers have never sent a representative from the basketball operations side in the six years the event has been presented. Jeanie Buss, Lakers executive vice president of business operations, was a speaker at the conference last year, however.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey started the conference in 2007 after initiating one of the first MBA programs with a sports analytics class in 2004. The purpose of the event is to discuss the way advanced metrics continue to increasingly influence the way in which professional sports organizations make their decisions and do their business.

According to the Toronto Star, 26 of the 29 NBA teams in attendance this year had more than one representative, as Sloan has clearly become an event with some traction around the league.

Not that the Lakers' presence was missed, however.

“If we can keep the Lakers locked out, that’s fine with us,” San Antonio Spurs GM R.C. Buford told The Star.

The 2013 basketball analytics panel of speakers included Buford, Indiana Pacers director of player personnel Kevin Pritchard, Boston Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren, former Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy and ESPN The Magazine senior writer Pablo S. Torre.

David Stern will retire as NBA commissioner next spring after a long run with the league that started full time when he was hired as the NBA's general counsel in 1978, one year before Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers.

Both the Lakers and the league as a whole experienced incredible growth and success in that time and Stern and Buss developed a strong friendship.

Stern called in to the "Mason & Ireland Show" on ESPNLA 710 radio on Tuesday to share his memories of Dr. Buss:

In regards to what made Buss a great sports owner, in his opinion:

“Well, he used those numbers and other intuitive features to judge basketball players and to judge those who work for him. We must not forget, Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak have done quite well for Jerry and in addition, as a business man, he understood what it would do to raise ticket prices to the Forum, to give Magic (Johnson) a contract that was outsized by any standard and he used those talents to learn everything there was to learn and make many suggestions about our league and how it should be run.”

On how the NBA would be different had there not been Buss' influence:

“I don’t know whether he led it, or innovated it, or he just flat out changed everything because we’ll never know, but for example, he looked at ticket prices and told us that everybody was pricing the best seats in the house wrong. The supply was limited and the demand would be unlimited and he changed the pricing structure. Would we ultimately have reached that conclusion a decade or so later? Maybe, probably, but he led it and then one fine day, long before there was a salary cap, Jerry thought it’d be a good idea to pay Magic Johnson a million dollars a year for 25 years, an outrageous amount of money that caused some owners to seriously consider selling their teams because this was so nuts. Of course it wasn’t nuts at all, it was, as Jerry said, he was making even a bigger star out of Magic and he realized what Magic could do with the franchise. There were many examples like that, Jerry did them all.”

In regards to how Buss was able to sell his ideas to other owners in league, ex: Laker girls, seating prices, etc.:

"I don’t think he forced his will; he led by example. I don’t remember any blow back on ticket pricing, just a lot of scratching of heads. On the Laker girls, my goodness gracious, I always say that Red Auerbach had the Celtics as the last team that didn’t have cheerleaders. And on the day they were supposed to launch, Red decided it was time to leave this Earth. Go check the records, Red was consistent for all of those years. He didn’t think there should be cheerleaders and he used to push at me for not being strong enough, or whatever it was. That was his pet peeve, but Jerry did it by example. ... With the business of basketball, and even though it says he didn’t meddle, I think that it’s fair also to say that he was the basketball presence of the Lakers, as well, because all decisions went through him. "

In relation to the Chris Paul trade and whether it was an issue with Buss:

“Not even an issue. We had a discussion about why he thought it was good for his team to do what they planned to do and someday I’ll tell everyone what he said about that, but then he also said he understood what I did and there was no rancor of any kind and we had … because we have been having a steady of conversation about collective bargaining and revenue sharing -- because of course Jerry was quite interested in that subject because much of it could be sought to be directed at the Lakers, because they were the largest-grossing team and other teams were going to be sharing in some of that and they were going to be, if they kept their payroll intact, the largest payer of tax because the tax was going up. But Jerry understood that it was in the best interest of the league and his wish was that his partners treated the Lakers fairly because he had always been a good league man.”

In relation to when Stern first saw greatness in Buss:

“It’s just a solid business acumen, time after time. Player drafting, player signing, business practices, being a fixture on the advisory finance committee, being a fixture on important collective bargaining committees and throughout it all, all I can tell you is, he took great pride in what his children were doing and even though I hear the word flamboyant, he was actually, people would find this hard to believe, a modest intellectual to me at many times and he was a thorough delight to have as a friend and an owner.”

As L.A. contemplates the decline and fall of the Lakers Empire, some fans are starting to look past this disastrous season and toward the offseason -- something nearly unheard of in Lakerland in January.

Nervous questions like “how can the Lakers make the playoffs” are now being replaced with sober inquiries such as “How will Mitch Kupchak fix this mess?”

Naturally, attention is turning toward the Lakers’ upcoming draft picks. If there’s one silver lining to missing the playoffs and landing in the lottery, it’s that the team usually gets a pretty good rookie to show for it. Problem is, the Lakers never envisioned being in this situation, and instead used their upcoming picks like chips at a poker table, throwing them into the pot in order to go all-in with their current hand.

Lottery pick? Not this time.

In two separate but interconnected trades, the Lakers dealt away most of their future draft assets. Let’s look at what happened earlier this year in order to understand what’s going to happen in June when David Stern calls his final draft.

March 15, 2012: The Lakers traded Luke Walton, Jason Kapono, a conditional 2012 first round pick (used to select Jared Cunningham at the 24 spot), future draft considerations and cash to Cleveland for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga.

While this trade brought the Lakers a stopgap point guard in Sessions, it’s the future draft considerations we want to focus on here. The Cavs had already stockpiled first-round picks from the Heat (in the post-decision LeBron James sign-and-trade) and Kings (as part of their J.J. Hickson-Omri Casspi deal in 2011). In the Sessions trade, the Cavs gained the right to swap the worst of these picks and their own pick with the Lakers, as long as the Lakers’ pick isn’t in the lottery.

From the Lakers’ perspective, this means that if they miss the 2013 playoffs and land in the lottery, they retain their pick. If they make the playoffs, then they will enter the draft with the worst pick from among their own, the Cavs’, the Heat’s and the Kings’ picks.

As a result of this trade, the Lakers’ pick had been partially spoken-for, but they still retained control of it if it turned out to be one of the top 14. This meant they were free to trade it again, as long as it was traded on the condition that it was one of the top 14 picks. They could even trade their pick if it wasn’t one of the top 14, so long as the trade specified that they were giving up whatever pick Cleveland left them with.

That’s exactly what they did.

July 11, 2012: The Lakers traded a 2013 first-round pick, a 2015 first-round pick, two second-round picks (in 2013 and 2014) and cash to Phoenix for Steve Nash.

In a trade that was widely viewed as a coup for the Lakers, the team acquired one of the premier point guards of the millennium (albeit the 38-year-old-version) for what was thought to be a collection of odds-and-ends. Again, we want to focus on the 2013 pick here.

The Lakers essentially agreed to give the Suns whatever pick they end up with in 2013. If the team misses the playoffs and ends up in the lottery (with one of the top 14 picks), the pick goes directly to Phoenix. If the Lakers somehow make the playoffs, then the Cavs still get the first shot at it, and the Lakers will end up with the worst pick from among the four aforementioned teams. But then whichever pick the Lakers end up with would go to Phoenix.

In summary, any way you slice it, the Suns get a first-round pick from the Lakers this summer. If we project the current records to the end of the season, the Lakers would be in the lottery and likely end up with the 10th pick, and the pick would be conveyed to Phoenix. (Historians will note that the Lakers’ only visits to the lottery were in 1994 and 2005, and both times they had the 10th pick, selecting Eddie Jones and Andrew Bynum, respectively.)

So if the Lakers want to have a first-round pick in this June’s draft, they’re going to have to trade for one. Their own pick will go to either Phoenix or Cleveland (likely Phoenix), and the team will be on the outside looking in on June 27. Unless Kupchak trades for another pick, his options are limited.

If Kupchak wants to fix the team through the draft, he likely won’t have a 2013 first-round pick at his disposal.

Magic Johnson, who has been critical of recent moves by the Lakers, continued to speak his mind to a small group of reporters after a press conference to introduce new Dodgers pitcher, Hyun-jin Ryu, on Monday afternoon.

On whether there is still time for this year's Lakers team to turn things around:

“This team has time, now I’m not giving up on the season, we’ve got time to improve. We started off the same way in ’90, not quite this bad, but we were there. So this team has time to turn it around, I think they’re gonna have to look each other in the eye and say, 'Look man, I’m committed to whatever, but I’m gonna commit to the defensive end first.' And then whatever happens on the offensive end, let it happen, but they gotta commit to each other on the defensive end.”

On whether Kobe Bryant needs to talk to Mike D’Antoni if things continue the way they've been going:

“If it keeps going the way it’s going, and this road trip is going to say a lot about our team. Then yes, he has to talk to him.”

On letting Mitch Kupchak make personnel decisions:

“You gotta rely on Mitch Kupchak's basketball knowledge, you gotta, you gotta reach out and let -- look, Dr. Buss let Jerry West make basketball decisions. He just came and said, 'Hey Dr. Buss, this is who I want to trade, this is the reason I want to trade them.' And Dr. Buss said, 'Ok.' You know make the move, if it’s gonna help our team. Jim wants to make the move and then tell Mitch to do it. No, you don’t have that basketball expertise. You gotta let Mitch Kupchak make those decisions and then we all live with that, whatever happens.”

On his hope that D'Antoni's approach will work:

“I’m hopeful that it will work out because I love the Lakers, so let’s see, but I still feel if he doesn’t change his system to fit the talent that he has, it’s never gonna work or you’re gonna have to make some major trades -- one or the other.”

On how the team handled a possible return of Phil Jackson as coach:

"If you weren’t gonna consider him for real, then why talk to him? Cause you got all of us excited, I’m excited, all L.A., the whole country was like, 'Oh, Phil’s coming back, maybe.' And then you turn around, not even negotiating or not knowing what he wanted and then you hire D’Antoni and again, you hire a coach who wants to run and you don’t have a running team.”

On the attitude he sees among the Lakers players right now:

"I don’t see the guys happy, it’s one thing to lose, but there’s no spirit. There’s no spirit, I hope they get back the hunt, where’s the spirit? Where’s the love of the game and love of playing with your teammates? Now that’s another thing I don’t see. It’s gonna take us time to get that, but we gotta get the feeling good about playing with each other as well.”

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LOS ANGELES -- The exchange had the feeling of one of those commercials you see after a team wins a championship.

"Hey, so and so, you just won the Super Bowl, what are you going to do next?"

So and so: "I'm going to Disney World!"

Only this time, the accomplishment was much more meager and the response, well, classic sarcasm.

Bernie Bickerstaff, you just became the all-time winningest coach in Los Angeles Lakers franchise history, what do you think?

"That'll get me a popsicle," Bickestaff replied, chuckling at the question.

Technically, yes, Bickerstaff finished out his run as Lakers interim coach -- spanning the gap between the fired Mike Brown and the hired Mike D'Antoni -- with a 3-1 record after the Lakers won 114-102 on Friday against the Phoenix Suns, making Bickerstaff's .750 winning percentage tops in Lakers' history.

That's right, better than Pat Riley's .733, Jack McKinney's .714, Paul Westhead's .689 and Phil Jackson's .676.

It's not something the 68-year old will brag about. He knows his three wins are 607 behind Jackson for first on the all-time franchise list. He also knows that his last week at the helm of the most glamorous team in the NBA just proves that when you think you've done it all, you haven't.

This basketball lifer had already been a head coach, assistant coach, scout, president and general manager in the NBA. He'd even been the head coach of the Harlem Globetrotters.

His time running the Lakers with four potential Hall of Famers in Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol was nothing he hadn't prepared the last 30-plus years to handle.

"Maybe some coaches would say, ‘This is my opportunity,’ but Bernie, he’s been around so long, it wasn’t like he was trying to protect turf," said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. "He knew what to do. He knew what the guys needed. Give them space, keep things simple. Then, some of his press conferences really defused a little bit of the tension. He had a nice way about him."

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To say the least, the last seven days have been a whirlwind, even by the Lakers' high standards. With the dust now settled, does the franchise still appear on the right track?

 

There are occasionally periods when the news cycle doesn't provide us much in the way of juicy topics for the podKast. Safe to say, this isn't one of those periods. Plenty to chop up, with Mike Brown out, Mike D'Antoni in, and Phil Jackson -- along with his legion of fans -- left mystified. It's officially a new era in the Los Angeles Lakers' illustrious franchise history, and we're diving right in.

The show can be heard by clicking on the module, and a breakdown of talking points is below.





- (2:30): After sharing some secrets for aspiring journos everywhere, we discuss the firing of Brown. Was it fair? Was it the right decision? Why did things ultimately go wrong for Brown?

- (7:19): The Lakers shocked the world by hiring D'Antoni, despite all the reporting (and fan noise) that strongly pointed in a third tour of duty for The Zen Master. First things first. What does this development do to the Buss Family Thanksgiving dinner just around the corner?

- (10:26): We examine why Jackson may have deemed a lesser fit than D'Antoni. There are legitimate reasons to question this roster's compatibility with the triangle, and more important, how fully invested Phil would remain, given the physical and mental toll the NBA grind seemed to take on him through the 2011 season.

- (14:23): What adjustments could be necessary by D'Antoni to get the most out of Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, and the supporting cast? How will this team eventually look with everyone healthy and on the same page? (By the way, it occurred to me after recording how the better "Where does Pau fit in?" comparison player was probably Boris Diaw, rather than Shawn Marion.)

- (19:10): Our biggest concern about D'Antoni might be his habit of running very short rotations, which simply cannot happen with a roster so collectively long in the tooth. However, we're not nearly as concerned about the "no defense" reputation that has plagued the coach since his days in Phoenix. While those Suns were hardly the second coming of the Bad Boy Pistons, they were actually better than credited.

- (20:55): The Kamenetzky brothers are gonna miss interim head coach Bernie Bickerstaff sooooooooooo much.

Here’s how Mike Brown spent his penultimate night as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers:

The Lakers plane landed back in L.A. just after midnight Thursday following the team’s 95-86 road loss on Wednesday night in Utah that dropped its record to a Western Conference-worst 1-4.

The loss was not sitting well with Brown, so, true to his workaholic reputation, the coach made his way from the airport to the team’s practice facility in El Segundo to break down his squad’s latest lackluster performance by watching film.

The hours ticked by and Brown decided it was time for some shut-eye. He kept a bed at his office in El Segundo for such occasions, but he didn’t have any pillows.

Brown, weary from the start to the season, figured he had better get the best sleep he could -- pillows included -- and decided to check into a hotel. Only problem was, Brown went to not one, but two hotels in the area and both were booked solid.

It was the middle of the night and Brown knew he needed to be back in El Segundo for an early coaches meeting Thursday morning, so he figured the 45-minute drive down to his house in Anaheim Hills that would include another hour drive back in the morning with traffic on the roads wasn’t an option.

Brown drove to Staples Center. His office there had a bed, too. With pillows.

Mike might not have been in L.A. long, but there were plenty of stories like this one.

“Very hard working, maybe one of the hardest-working coaches that I’ve ever been around,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said at the news conference to announce Brown’s firing Friday.

It’s an earnest quality of Brown’s. He’s dedicated. He’s prepared. He pays attention to detail.

But you can work all you want and still not be the right man for the job.

Back in 2009, when I was writing a feature on Phil Jackson, he told me about a note that former Marquette coach Al McGuire once sent to him.

“It said, 'If you can't get it done in eight hours, you ain't gonna get it done,'" Jackson recalled. “So that was one of the things that I try to remember about basketball.”

That concept never sunk in with Brown. He beat the odds in coming from being a mediocre player at a mediocre college basketball program (University of San Diego) to work his way up from intern to video coordinator to scout to assistant coach to head coach of the league’s glamour franchise.

He couldn’t rely on his legendary playing days or nepotism connections or flashy good looks and personality to get him coaching jobs, like a lot of his peers do in the industry.

He did it by working hard. Or by “working his tail off,” which is one of Brown’s favorite phrases.

It was a remarkable journey Brown embarked on, no doubt. But somewhere along the way, his worker reputation became more of an annoyance to his players than an inspiration.

During last year’s lockout-shortened season, when rest was at a premium because of the compressed schedule, Brown would sometimes conduct contact practices on game days instead of simple, low-impact shootarounds. He picked up the nickname “All Day, Every Day” from his players for his reluctance to take a break.

The joke continued on Friday morning, Brown’s last day on the job.

"Me and Jordan Hill kind of were joking a little bit while we were doing therapy and said we might have a five-hour shootaround today,” Kobe Bryant said.

Many believe there is an argument to be made that Brown got a raw deal in L.A.

He joined the team when the league was about to enter its first lockout in 12 years. Pau Gasol, the team’s second-best player, was nearly traded on the eve of Brown’s first training camp, and it sabotaged the Spaniard’s psyche. Lamar Odom, the team’s emotional bellwether, was shipped out of town -- just as Derek Fisher, the team’s truest leader, was later in the season. Brown’s truncated Year 2 was marred by injuries to his key players (Dwight’s back, Kobe’s ankle, Nash’s leg) and he captained only five regular-season games to form his team before management pulled the plug.

But even in ideal circumstances, there’s still doubt about Brown.

One league source asked me on Friday night, “If Brown was always so prepared, how come he let his assistant coaches take over his huddles?”

Indeed, Brown often ceded control of the plays being drawn up during timeouts to his staff. It could be interpreted as trust. One source close to Brown said he had no problem doing it because he was “egoless.” But it could also be interpreted as weakness.

There’s a certain charisma that one needs to be a head coach in the NBA, especially for a team like the Lakers with more outsized personalities on it than the cast of “Modern Family.”

Everyone who knows Brown thinks of him as a good man. There’s little he cares for in this world outside of basketball and his family. But good guys don’t always make good coaches.

Even if you took away all the adverse circumstances that Brown had to contend with in L.A., he made mistakes that were his own doing.

Last season, he spent what little practice time the team had hammering away at his defensive concepts, and the Lakers’ offense suffered greatly because of it. Brown was smart enough to focus his efforts on offense this past offseason. He approached Bryant in the postgame locker room in Oklahoma City after L.A. was bounced from the playoffs in Game 5 of the second round to get his blessing to pursue a new Princeton-style offense. But when the Princeton was sputtering early on this year, he refused to keep it simple during the adjustment period.

He’ll look back at that decision as his biggest failure during his time with the Lakers. But there were others.

He vowed to cut Bryant’s minutes down last season, then turned around and kept Bryant out on the floor for 40-plus minutes with regularity. His first major adjustment to the lineup, bringing Metta World Peace off the bench, was abandoned just a handful of games into the season. He shuffled his rotations seemingly haphazardly. Sure, it paid off with his instinct insertion of Jordan Hill into the lineup late last season. But the same unsettled rotation pattern also rendered free-agent signee Josh McRoberts virtually useless last year, and it appeared Jodie Meeks was headed toward the same fate.

Even having said all that, it surely wasn’t an easy decision for the Lakers’ front office to let Brown go. Even though his players rolled their eyes when he’d plant a kiss on their forehead to punctuate his appreciation and even when media members would tune him out when he’d break out his hokey act of actually tapping his fist against his forehead when he said the phrase “knock on wood” (and he did that a lot), you don’t root for genuinely nice people to fail. You just don’t.

But winning has nothing to do with being nice. It just doesn’t.

So when Kupchak, executive vice president Jim Buss and Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss laid their heads down on their pillows Friday night after a whirlwind day, you have to think they were able to get a good, guilt-free night’s sleep.

The hard worker just wasn’t working anymore. They made the right call.

LOS ANGELES -- Thirty-one years ago this month, the Los Angeles Lakers fired Paul Westhead after just 11 games and one infamous trade demand from Magic Johnson following a game in Utah.

Friday they fired Mike Brown just five games into his second season after one infamous "death stare" from Kobe Bryant during a game in Utah. Two exceptionally quick hooks that are so eerily similar it's hard to believe they are simply coincidental.

As it turns out, they aren't. According to multiple Lakers sources, Lakers owner Jerry Buss learned a lesson from his experience with Westhead that he, his son Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak remembered this week when they made the decision to to fire Brown.

"When you're ready to fire someone, don't wait," one source said.

The Lakers had actually decided to fire Westhead two games earlier, sources said, before they played the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 15, 1981, but they didn't do it right away. When the team beat both the Pacers and the Utah Jazz three nights later, things got awkward. The team's issues hadn't changed -- Johnson was unhappy with the way he was being used in Westhead's offense -- but now after losing four of their first six games, the Lakers had rattled off four straight wins. When Johnson asked to be traded following the Jazz game, it created the perception he forced Jerry Buss' hand when in actuality the decision to fire Westhead had been made several days earlier.

That experience was brought up several times in the Lakers' decision-making process this week. Kupchak was a player on that Lakers team and remembered it well. As ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported early Friday morning, Lakers management had initially decided to evaluate team and Brown during this six-game homestand. But the more they thought about it, sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com Friday night, the more they realized there was a lesson to be learned from their own history.

Approach me on the street and accuse me of being an alcoholic, and I'll deny it.

"Of course," you might say. "Denial is the first sign of being an alcoholic."

True enough (according to the literature, at least), but it's also the first sign of not being an alcoholic.

In many ways, that's the dynamic at play whenever management is asked for a vote of confidence on the head coach. The answer is almost never "I hope he's renting" and encouraging words no matter how flowery are often followed by the axe. The powers that be express support because doing anything else is counterproductive. Denial plays like denial, even if it's genuine.

In Los Angeles, the hot seat questions have already arrived in earnest. Judging by our Twitter feed and comments left on the blog after Wednesday's 96-85 loss in Utah dropped the Lakers to 1-4, a healthy dose of purple-and-gold faithful are ready to cut ties with coach Mike Brown.

They hope, then, the (vote of) confidence and patience shown him by Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, via ESPNLA's Ramona Shelburne, is merely a misdirection designed to distract while he dusts off his coaching Rolodex. It doesn't sound that way:

"I have no problems with Mike Brown at all," Buss said. "He just works too hard and he's too knowledgeable for this to be happening.

"So either the system is flawed or something's going on. Or, like the Triangle, it's very hard to pick up and understand. I'm not a basketball mind like he is or the players are, and the players are fine with it, so I just have to be patient."

Buss says he has been gauging player reaction to the Lakers' new Princeton offense, Brown and how they're dealing with the slow start by reading their public comments and talking to them directly. On Tuesday afternoon, he went down from his office to the court during practice to take their temperature, and he said he found things to be rather calm.

"Kobe [Bryant] and I have a relationship where he can just look at me and say, 'Everything's cool,' " Buss said. "So yesterday during practice, I gave Kobe a quick glance, and everything was cool." ...

... In Buss' own words, "this team was built to win now." So just how patient can he be?

"You have to give it time to understand [what's going on]," Buss said. "I don't know if there's an actual game total that would make me impatient. I know if we're 1-15, I don't think that would be very good. I'm sure that would be a panic button. But at this time, I'm fine with what's going on. It's a learning process for the players. As long as everybody is on the same page, I think we're fine."

For the record, Brown won't survive a 1-15 start, but the reality is a) should it happen I won't be around to report the news for I will already have taken the family into the K-Bros Blog Bunker (or "Blonker"), and b) the Lakers won't be 1-15 after 16 games. They won't be 12-4, either, but somewhere in the middle. By every indication, Jim Buss likes Brown and believes he's a good coach. Moreover, philosophically, the Lakers aren't a knee-jerk group. They don't make reactionary choices. Should something catastrophic occur -- the horrible record extends near Thanksgiving or clear indications Brown has totally lost the team -- any decision on Brown becomes easy.

More likely, though, it won't be that cut and dried. In a season with so much on the line, Buss and Mitch Kupchak could face some extremely tough decisions.

(Read full post)

With the season just around the corner, I texted two-time Grammy winner and lifelong Lakers fanatic Ben Harper to see if our buddy could drop by the studio to record a show.

His response? "Gotta be done!"

Oh, yes. Yes, it does.

With the Lakers on the verge of playing real games with one of their most star-studded rosters, we wanted to get Harper's take on what may lie ahead for the purple and gold. As always, we also talked some music, including "Get up!," his upcoming collaboration with blues legend Charlie Musselwhite. (Harper was kind enough to give us advanced copies of the CD, and it's fantastic. Chock-full of slide guitar, harmonica, gorgeous vocals and other assorted goodies; if you enjoy blues, mark your calendars for Jan. 29.)

The show can be heard by clicking on the module, and a breakdown of talking points is below:





- (1:15): Less than two minutes into the podKast, a Christmas present for Ben emerges: A Lakers jersey with "Kamenetzky" on the back. Seriously. He wants one. How can someone with such strong taste in music have such poor taste in Lakers gear?

- (4:02): Harper recounts his delighted reaction to Steve Nash and Dwight Howard entering the fold. It was yet another strong summer for Mitch Kupchak, which raises a poignant question. Why don't more people rock a "Kupchak" jersey in gratitude for everything he's done over the last five years? Or a "Kupchak" neck tat, if that's your preferred way of giving thanks?

- (6:36): Harper may be a rock star whose life is filled with fame, connections and oodles of perks. But that doesn't mean he can't relate to Joe Q. Laker Fan shut out while Time Warner Cable negotiates deals with various providers. As US Weekly would say, "Stars: They're just like us!"

- (11:00): Ben shares his expectations for the season, neatly summarized in one word: Championship.

- (12:30): From Cream to Audioslave, rock has seen its share of "super groups." They often produce fantastic music, but the shelf life is typically short, given the egos involved. Harper, who's collaborated with enough legends to understand the dynamic involved, explains how the "super group" issues mirror those that faced by the Lakers with their video game starting five.

"You have to be as ready to learn and listen as you do contribute. And you contribute by learning and listening. Taking a step back. Knowing when to step back. Knowing when to leave the room. Knowing when to be present. A lot goes into the personal dynamics of making a super group or a collaboration work. But when they work, they work. It's chemistry."

- (21:45): Ben didn't get my August memo about why the 2013 super team Lakers aren't the 2004 super team Lakers, so we break down the differences and calm his nerves.

- (27:00): Kobe has talked frequently and insistently about retiring after 2-3 seasons, in part because of a drastic slippage he'd rather avoid than accept, and also because of how hard the aging process makes the preparation that comes with playing at Kobe's level. As a musician with a career now 20+ years in the books, Ben understands the difficulty of maintaining his own standards, as well as the physical and mental grind of touring, seeking inspiration, etc. How does he keep the process feeling fresh?

He also attempts to uncover the meaning of life and our purpose on this planet, but that's a bit trickier.

- (35:08): We close the show with "I Don't Believe a Word You Say," a track from "Get up!" Good stuff.

ANAHEIM -- Andrew Bynum is the Philadelphia 76ers' to worry about now.

The Los Angeles Lakers have quite enough to keep them up at night as Dwight Howard continues to work his way back from offseason back surgery.

But with Monday's news out of Philadelphia that Bynum received another injection of Synvisc -- a gel-like substance that sometimes provides relief for inflamed tissue -- in his knee, it raises a larger question:

Whose problems would you rather be saddled with: Bynum's chronically painful, injured knees or Howard's still-unproven back?

It was a question Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak had to answer over the summer before he made the trade that sent Bynum to Philadelphia in a four-team deal that brought Howard to Los Angeles from Orlando.

"Whatever concern we had (with Bynum's knees) was offset by Dwight coming off offseason back surgery," Kupchak told ESPNLosAngeles.com on Tuesday. "Our doctors were able to look at (Howard's medical records) but not until after the trade, which was conditional on him passing a physical."

Howard has been cleared to participate in full-contact scrimmages but has yet to play in any of the Lakers' first four exhibition games.

Bynum was able to participate in 60 of the Lakers' 66 games last season, but he took the entire summer to rest and recuperate from the increased workload, skipping the Olympics in the process.

You'd think after a summer off, he'd be ready to go at the start of training camp. But he has yet to participate in training camp with his new team as he continues to recover from a cutting-edge treatment on his knee he received in Germany, and a bone bruise on his knee.

As 76ers CEO Adam Aron tweeted: "If all goes to plan, he's back Oct 24. But we won't know how the knee feels for sure until, no surprise, Oct 24. While conditioning in Sept, unrelated to German procedure, he got a bone bruise which we transparently announced. From there, he has to get into game shape. That is everything Sixers know. The rest of the loose talk is guessing."

Bynum's former teammate Metta World Peace seconded that sentiment:

"I think he's going to be amazing this year," World Peace said. "He's tough. That year we won the championship (2010), he was playing through a lot of pain. A lot of pain. But we needed him. I don't think we could've won without him.

"Last year he played in a lot of games. The last couple years he's been dominant. And he's still young. You need him on your team."

With Lakers Media Day approaching Monday, it dawned on me how Oct. 1, 2012, doesn't just mark the official launch of training camp and the 2012-2013 season. It also marks the five-year anniversary of the Media Day following Kobe Bryant's "radio tour." To say the least, Oct. 1, 2007 provided a surreal atmosphere. As Lakers fans remember, after missing the playoffs in 2005, then consecutive first round exits against the Suns, the Mamba appeared on a number of radio shows expressing a desire to be traded -- Pluto was cited as an option -- and was recorded blasting the front office for their unwillingness to trade Andrew Bynum for Jason Kidd. (If we learned one thing from that summer, Kobe Bryant the player is a first ballot Hall of Fame lock, but his credentials as a general manager leave something to be desired.)

Save bringing point guard/Kobe confidant Derek Fisher back into the fold, Mitch Kupchak and Dr. Buss responded to the outburst by presenting Bryant a roster essentially untouched. Thus, speculation swirled as to whether 24 would actually report to camp. Lest anybody assume this was simply the media churning the waters to create drama, think again. After 15-20 minutes with no sign of Kobe, I vividly remember Kwame Brown asking me if I'd seen the superstar, and if I knew whether he was gonna show up. This was truly the $1,000,000 question, and nobody was quite sure how the day would shake out.

Eventually, Kobe did emerge, palpably unenthusiastic, but committed to remaining professional. The season turned out considerably better than expected, even before Pau Gasol trade. Since then, Kobe has collected his fourth and fifth rings, and despite this offseason presenting seemingly few avenues for upgrading a team stuck in good-but-not-great purgatory, we're now looking at a starting five of Steve Nash, Bryant, Metta World Peace, Gasol and Dwight Howard.

And Oct. 1, 2007 feels about 100 years in the rear view mirror.

It reminds me of this exchange between Glen (Sam McMurray) and H.I. (Nicolas Cage) in Raising Arizona:

Glen: It's a crazy world.
H.I.: Someone oughta sell tickets.
Glen: Sure, I'd buy one.

Enjoy the season.