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Lakers Fire Mike Brown, What’s Next?

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After a 1-4 start to the season, the Los Angeles Lakers have decided to fire head coach Mike Brown. Despite Brown having a 42-29 overall career record as Lakers coach, they still let him go. The Lakers were worried about how the season started because this was one of the worst starts in Lakers history.

But the real question is why. Why did the Lakers fire their head coach? The Lakers’ slow start this season is understandable. Coming into the season, the team lost a few key players from last year, and they brought in a lot of new faces. That explains the 0-8 record in the preseason. The Lakers really didn’t get the chance to play with each other during that time because they were battling with the injury bug.

Is Kobe the reason why Brown was fired? There was a lot of tension between the two, especially after the Lakers were eliminated in last year’s playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Is this truly the reason, or is it just the fact that Kobe needs Phil Jackson to be his coach? While being coached by Jackson, Kobe managed to win five championship rings, while he struggled in the postseason under anyone who was not Jackson. In his NBA career, Kobe only missed the playoffs once, but he was never able to bring home a championship without Jackson. With Jackson as  coach the Lakers posted a 610-292 record and won five NBA championships, and when it wasn’t Jackson on the sideline in the Kobe era the Lakers only posted a 224-143 record and have not won an NBA title.

The next question is what is next for the Lakers? Who is going to be the Lakers’ next head coach? Are the Lakers going to turn this season around and be the team we expected them to be? Are they going to win their first Championship without Jackson in the Kobe era? In the meantime, assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff will be taking over.