The Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Byron Scott, the team announced Sunday night.
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Many fans in Los Angeles turned on Scott this year or last – even though he previously played 11 seasons with the Lakers and won three championships with them.
Scott, at 38-126 (.232), had the worst record of the 16 Lakers coaches who spent at least two seasons with the team at the helm.
But the new editions, including the return of Julius Randle, their top pick in 2014, provided less on-court spark than in 2015, dropping to a franchise low, 17-65 on the season. The team lost four more games than it did in its previous franchise-worst season in 2014-15.
Scott had two team options left on his contract, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of the Yahoo!-affiliated website The Vertical, who was the first to report that Scott had been fired.
Byron Scott did not last too long in his tenure as the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach.
The Lakers move into the coaching market after two prominent coaches who had interest in Los Angeles – Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks – accepted new jobs in recent days.
And so the search begins for a Laker franchise that is flush with money and loaded with young talent, but, still, several pieces and several years away. They will have pedigree that will appeal to free agents.
Improving the Lakers’ abysmal play on that end would obviously be the first priority for whoever coaches the team next, and Jackson – with his gritty NY ideology – would be the ideal man for the job. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was the first to break the story regarding the Lakers’ firing of Byron Scott. Scott joins Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni as coaches who failed to match the winning tradition of an organization that has hung 16 National Basketball Association championship banners. The Lakers are compiling a list that consists of a number of college coaches such as Kevin Ollie, Jay Wright, Roy Williams and John Calipari, among a couple of other names. Although he has remained happy coaching the Huskies for the past four years, Ollie finds the Lakers’ head-coaching vacancy intriguing, according to a source familiar with his thinking. Ollie also grew up in South Central Los Angeles and formerly starred at Crenshaw High. However, Ollie has flirted with National Basketball Association head coaching in the past, and if there’s one team that would certainly peak his interest, it’s the Lakers.
Ettore Messina – Ettore Messina may not be a splashy hire for the Lakers, but he’s a safe and productive one. A confident coach will see opportunity here, not merely a 17-win team.
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When Kupchak made those comments earlier this month, Scott was still the head coach since the front office had yet to make a decision regarding his future.
