Lakers Rumors: Was Phil Jackson Prepared To Accept Coaching Job?

Amidst all the brouhaha of Mike D’Antoni’s hiring as Laker coach, ESPN L.A.’s Ramona Shelburne dropped this little bomb.

Wow.

As for Phil Jackson’s reaction? Shelburne has that, too, for us.

Phil Jackson had quite a set of demands for the job. He wasn’t a big fan of the travel so I’m sure there were concessions being made in these negotiations. Jackson wanted Jim Buss’ power relinquished from the team and wanted a lot of say in terms of player personnel. He wanted an ownership stake of the team. Ad, of course, money was also a factor in the dealings. All of these demands were unprecedented so instead of dealing through all of those, the Laker front office decided to go with Steve Nash’s old coach in Phoenix, D’Antoni.

I’m pretty sure some (a lot?) of Laker fans will get irritated that the Busses and Kupchak didn’t wait one more day in this coaching search. Some think D’Antoni is a poor fit for this Laker team but I think the Lakers got the next best thing.

D’Antoni should be making his Laker coaching debut on Friday (if he’s cleared medically) against, of all the teams, Phoenix.

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