Lakers hire D’Antoni as Head Coach. Knicks fans everywhere collectively laugh out loud.

What do you do when you’re a storied franchise and you just fired a head coach that was extremely one dimensional, nobody thought he had the chutzpah to win an NBA championship, and your franchise’s superstar had no respect for him? You hire a coach who got fired for the same reasons at his last job! Wait…huh? How does this make any sense?

It doesn’t.

On Sunday morning, when the Lakers relieved Mike Brown from his head coaching duties, everyone and their grandmothers assumed that the Lakers would talk to Phil Jackson and “convince” him to come back to the Lakers and pads his record total of 11 NBA championship rings. However, Jim Buss had other ideas. He didn’t like the fact that people thought that the Zenmaster was coming to the rescue and save the Lakers season. The Lakers save people! Not the other way around! How dare people think that the Lakers need saving or that Phil Jackson is more important than Jim Buss! Hello no. That just means he’ll go and hire…..

…Mike D’Antoni?

Mike Brown was fired because he was a defensive minded coach (and the Lakers were porous on defense) that was trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole by trying to get the Lakers to fit the Princeton offense he was trying to run. Plus, Kobe treated him like the red headed child that he had in Colorado. In fact, when Mike Brown first got hired a little over a year ago, most people thought this was inevitable. Looking back, it makes sense. Mike Brown was criticized for the same things when he was fired in Cleveland.

So why the fuck do you hire Mike D’Antoni? Why hire a purely offensive minded coach that acts as if defensive strategy is AIDS and was fired primarily because he couldn’t get along with Carmelo Anthony? Well, I can only think of 4 reasons:

1. The pieces the Lakers have on offense would be devastating in a pick and roll offense. That happens to be Mike D’Antoni’s bread and butter.
2. Mike D’Antoni has a few good relationships with players on the Lakers already. Steve Nash loves D’Antoni and is the reason why Nash has a couple of MVP trophies under his belt. I’m sure the feeling is mutual considering D’Antoni’s win percentage with Nash is .733 and .385 without him. Both Dwight and Kobe played on the 2008 Dream Team that had D’Antoni as the assistant coach. Also, Kobe’s father played with Mike D’Antoni in Italy so him and Kobe go waaaaay back.
3. Phil Jackson just had knee surgery and still hasn’t been cleared to fly yet. In fact, because of his condition, he probably would have to miss a few road games because his body wouldn’t be able to stand the rigors of the NBA travel schedule. Playing a game without your head coach leading your team can be awkward.
4. Jim Buss despises the perception of Phil Jackson being the savior of the Lakers. He probably also loathes the fact that he’s all up in his sister (Jeannie Buss) too. Hell, he probably just flat out hates Phil Jackson, period.

If reason number 4 had anything to do with it, Jimmy Buss must have a touch of the downs. It’s of my opinion that when you’re in the business of sports, you’re in the business of winning championships. Phil Jackson is your best bet to win a championship. The Lakers shit the bed here and now they have to sleep in it.