It’s now clear why the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t fans of the HBO show winning time, especially everyone currently working for the team. The show in no way resembles their mindset.
In Eepisode 9, Jeanie Buss is considered a visionary in the style of her father Dr. Jerry Buss. On the show, they pause a game to superimpose him on the court as he gives a monologue about how long it took Roger Bannister to finally run a mile in under four minutes and how the next person does it week later has done . He did this to make it clear that with vision and effort, nothing is impossible. dr Buss sells this vision of the Lakers not only as a dynastic basketball team, but also as a Hollywood production to anyone who wants to buy them.
Jeanie is the same on the show. Your ideas are so impressive that Claire Rothman, in real life “dominated the forum”, goes to Buss’ home (while his mother is dying of cancer) and requests that Jeanie Buss become a full-time employee of the team. At the time he refuses, but she is just like him. She came up with all these ideas to make the Forum not just a basketball arena, but a premier venue that hosts Hollywood events.
In fact, Buss was 18 during the 1979-80 Los Angeles Lakers championship season, and her entry into the business world came at 19 as general manager of the Los Angeles Strings of the now-defunct World TennisTeam. Buss was not Rothman’s protégé and did not work for the Forum until she was president after Rothman left.
Also, any forward-thinking vision she seems to have had is gone, because now that the Lakers are back in the hunt for a coach, she’s reaching out to a person whose offense is as outdated as the posse comments he made LeBron James did it a few years ago, Phil Jackson. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said Tuesday on NBA Today that Jackson is instrumental in the process.
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Yes, he’s her ex-husband, but this recent run with the New York Knicks should show his time is up. Jackson was still influencing then-Knicks coach Derek Fisher to execute the triangle offense while Stephen Curry and James Harden sprayed 3-pointers from every angle. It’s bad enough that she has this Rambis family Tentacles all over the Lakers, now Mr. Posse brought them back.
It gets awkward when Jackson and James work together, when James was obviously not happy that Jackson called him and his friends/business partners a posse. Even when it comes to vision, bringing Phil Jackson into the process isn’t exactly the result of searching far and wide.
On the show, Dr. Bused UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian a royal ransom to coach the Lakers and he would have taken the job but for the mysterious murder of a friend – yes, that scene is very true. He then brings in assistant NBA champion Dr. Jack Ramsey, Jack McKinney, as coach and would end the season with Paul Westhead after McKinney’s accident on his bike.
This is a person who wants to shake things up. Not Rambis and Rob Pelinka, whose insistence that Jason Kidd be part of Tyronn Lue’s staff is the reason Lue is across the hall with the Los Angeles Clippers. After a few years as a Laker assistant, Kidd has the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade. After a third disappointing season in four years with James, Jeanie and the Lakers decide Jackson, 76, has the answer.
A decision like this is why they all need to lay down their pride and watch winning time. Sure, some of the story is changed on the show, but the spirit is there. The spirit that made the Lakers one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. However, this was only because the Lakers were not only good, they were fresh and an excellent show and after-party.
They thought outside the box. This version of the Lakers is constantly stuck in it, wondering why they’ve spent more years out of the playoffs than in them over the past 13 years. Just summon the legend, he can save us with his infinite wisdom.
Or maybe he influences Buss to hire a coach like him and they lose in the play-in tournament next season. A perfect example of why people should always look for outside influence when coaching and storytelling. If they don’t, they can get stuck in a myopic mess of their own creation.
