The Los Angeles Lakers, the new coach, and the duelling scoops
Plus, a consideration of whether the Edmonton Oilers are really Canada's team, and can everyone chill out a bit about Caitlin Clark?
On Tuesday, The Athletic published a story from NBA insider Shams Charania that said the Los Angeles Lakers were “zeroing in” on JJ Reddick as the next head coach of one of the signature franchises in pro sports.
The report said the process wasn’t over, but that “indications were strong” that Reddick, the former NBA player and current television commentator, was the leading contender for the job, which had been focused for weeks on two candidates, Reddick and New Orleans assistant coach James Borrego.
On Thursday, ESPN published a story from NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski that was the metaphorical equivalent of a thunderclap. The Lakers, it said, were preparing to offer the head-coach job to Dan Hurley, coach of the back-to-back national champion UConn Huskies.
The timing of these two stories is fascinating. Charania and Wojnarowski are the NBA’s two premier scoop merchants. They often report the same information close to simultaneously on their Twitter accounts, but sometimes just one of Woj or Shams has the goods.
Rarely does one report something attributed to inside sources, only to have the other report something that its completely contradictory. If it has happened before like this, I cannot recall it. Woj didn’t just break a story, he broke a story that said his rival insider had poor information. The ESPN piece says that Hurley “has been at the forefront of the Lakers' search from the beginning of the process.” Hurley isn’t mentioned at all as a possible candidate in the Charania piece.
Both Woj and Shams tend to couch almost all their reporting as coming from “league sources,” a term vague enough that it’s impossible to know if it indicates players, management, coaches, agents, or the guy who replaces the ink in the printer at the NBA offices. But someone was played pretty significantly here. Charania, it is worth noting at this point, authored an insider tell-all piece that ran when the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs in April, and which depicted widespread unhappiness with then-coach Darvin Ham. The coach was fired days later. But if someone in the Lakers organization wanted to get back at Charania for airing that particular laundry, feeding a false scoop would be one way to do it.
The intrigue over the conflicting scoops, or at least my interest in it, overshadows what seems to be a pretty bizarre coaching search. Reddick has demonstrated in his brief media career that he’s a sharp guy with a good sense of basketball tactics, but he’s never had significant coaching experience in college or the pros, and he also happens to the be the co-host of a podcast with LeBron James. Yep, that LeBron James, NBA legend and current Los Angeles Laker. Hurley, on the other hand, has an impeccable NCAA coaching resume, but there is a long history of great colleges coaches who struggle when they jump straight to a head-coaching gig in the NBA. There is also this line from Woj’s thunderclap:
Assuming James returns to L.A. in free agency, the possibility of using the 55th pick in this month's NBA draft on USC freshman guard Bronny James makes Hurley an even more intriguing candidate. If that happens, James gets a chance to play with his son and the benefit of Hurley and his staff becoming responsible for Bronny's pro development.
Sorry, what now? The Lakers would make a head-coaching decision based in part on the fact that he might be good for the development of LeBron’s son? The same son who might not even be much of a professional prospect? If nothing else, it would be a first.
Canada’s team?
My recent piece at theScore considers the annual media narrative in which it suggested that the last Canadian team standing in the Stanley Cup playoffs becomes, by default, the choice of the majority of the nation’s hockey fans.
Bunkum, I say. Also horsefeathers and codswallop. And if you have a particular interest in seeing random strangers insult me, go ahead and read the comments.
The take machine takes off
My other recent piece at theScore is about WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark, and a very strange week in the opinion economy. Settle down, everyone.
As always, thanks for reading. Enjoy the weekend.