by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
UPDATE: Um … wow! According to USA Today, Mike Brown is no longer gainfully employed. The Lakers fired their head coach, a day after saying his job was safe: “Mike Brown has been fired by the Los Angeles Lakers, according to his agent Warren Legarie. The Lakers are off to a 1-4 start and will play Golden State tonight at the Staples Center.”
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Publicly, the Los Angeles Lakers — everyone from management to players with influence — are saying all of the right, re-assuring things about Mike Brown.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the team’s disappointing 1-4 start to the season has the sharks circling around the embattled head coach.
Unemployed coaches are rumored to be interested in Brown’s job, and there’s now talk that management is losing patience with him.
Per ESPN:
Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown’s job would be in immediate jeopardy if the team’s six-game homestand is unsuccessful, according to sources close to the situation.
Sources said that the Lakers, while having publicly expressed support for Brown in the wake of a 1-4 start, have privately grown sufficiently concerned about the state of the team to the point that management is prepared to look seriously at a coaching change at this early juncture if L.A. can’t take advantage of what look to be multiple winnable games in the upcoming stretch.
Believe it or not, there is good news on the horizon for Mike Brown. In theory, anyway: the Lakers have a long, and easy homestand starting tonight, and their record should look a lot more respectable in the coming days.
It’s going to be a fascinating season for the Lakers and Mike Brown. Whether he survives it, remains very much up in the air.
