It’s amazing who an organization can send out all kinds of signals before doing the exact opposite. I guess that eventually, the look that Kobe Bryant gave Mike Brown on the bench during the loss to the Utah Jazz did mean what it looked like. Just a season and a bit at the job, only 71 regular season games, and Mike Brown is no longer the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jerry Buss, the owner, said he doesn’t see firing Mike Brown on the table right now. Maybe if they were 1-15, but there’s no need to panic right now. Kobe Bryant kept saying he’s behind Mike, but plenty of other things seems to have been going on in the background. If you think for a second that Mitch Kupchak, the man who made all the moves (Dwight Howard, Steve Nash) to be as loaded as possible for the next two years didn’t consult Bryant before firing Brown… well, you get the drift.

Everything people say to the media is one big mask. Behind the scenes is the truth. Maybe Buss told Kupchak that if the Lakers don’t win soon it’s on him. No reason to panic everyone kept saying, but Kobe Bryant was getting frustrated for the whole world to see. No need to panic, but it seems like the panic button and the decision to fire Brown was just waiting in the air to be unleashed upon the NBA world.

Who’s next? What’s next? An assistant coach, according to Kupchak. Not that it matters. Whatever the coaching staff was trying to do, it’s all down the drain. This is Kobe Bryant’s team, whoever is the new head coach. Kupchak may say one thing, but you never know who the Lakers will be aiming for to lead them out of the early season slump. There’s a good chance he’ll be a better coach than Mike Brown, who probably owes a lot of his career to the talent of LeBron James.

Cutthroat business, the NBA and any professional league. When the owners, GM and the star player announce that this team is supposed to win now, losing 4 of the first five games in a 82 game season is just too much. Maybe they wanted to do this all along, and were just waiting for an excuse. For Brown it’ll probably a bit of rest, trying to wrap his head around everything that happened.

Maybe an analyst job, that maybe he is better suited for at the moment. Lakers are always about winning, and if it wasn’t Brown’s head it would have been Kupchak. Kobe Bryant needed to be pleased, so the fall guy took the fall.

Image: Source