Michigan Man Juwan
ESPN and several other sources reporting that Lakers made significant outreach to our coach, only to receive the Heisman from our great leader. Go Blue>
As long as Jace and Jett are on the roster, Juwan isn't going anywhere.
Yeah, I'd be shocked if he jumped ship while they're enrolled. But after that my guess is he'll consider an NBA job, especially if he has kids in the league.
Which may only be two more years.
Exactly, that's when the real test will happen as far as whether he has NBA interest (probably does).
Well, that's provided he doesn't have any more incidents. If there's another incident like the one against Wisconsin, I'd think Michigan would fire him. Hopefully Howard has undergone some anger management counseling.
There's always one....time to move on.
Honestly, fuck Wisconsin. I never had an issue
Agreed, fuck Wisconsin. I say that freely even though I'm probably related to Greg Gard. He's from the human side of the family.
Are you sure he's from the human side of the family? He looks like he could throw poo with the best of them.
First off, even if you believed this bullshit, that would mean the NBA makes more sense than being a college coach.
Second, that has zero bearing on anything. Quit acting like he murdered someone.
He wasn't getting fired because it's not a fireable offense unless you want it to be...meaning, a coach with multiple losing seasons? Sure, they'll use something like that as an excuse to get rid of you. Especially if you're a former player who has tremendous support. But that's all it is...an excuse. You got fired because you're losing, but this was something they could use to "justify" it. That wasn't the case then and isn't the case now.
Some of y'all crack me up.
Perfect individual.
Art LINKletter you are not, OP.
That's my coach :')
Seriously, who would want that job. Howard already has a ton of cash and who wants the nightmare of being the “Assistant Coach” to Lebron!? Coaching Lebron and Westbrook has to be one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in the NBA.
Was about to post the same. The timing of the job would be bad, too. Mostly downside in the near term.
Dealing with huge egos is part of the deal in the NBA, and LeBron at least seems like a semi-normal human who wants to play good basketball and win. Consider Steve Nash, who has to coach KD, Irving, and Harden and deal with all of their annoyances.
I don't think being the HC in LA is ever that much fun because the expectations are always titles and when you fall short the fans get angry. But it's not like there are any "good" jobs that don't have player management issues.
Thankfully, Harden isn’t his problem anymore though Simmons seems as big of a head case. Point taken though. That said, and I’m a huge LeBron fan, but he fancies himself a coach and GM as well from what I can gather and that to me would just be a bigger headache than it’s worth.
Seriously…I mean the organization has only won 17 championships, even Vogel won one, who would want that? I mean living in LA and winning championships is so overrated…for someone that wants to coach on the highest level.
Unfortunately, many don’t want to live in LA / the state of California. Furthermore, coaching Lebron is thankless. If you win a Championship, “Lebron did it” in the media and fan’s eyes. If you lose in the Playoffs, it must be the coaches fault. Again, I wouldn’t want any part of that if I’m Howard.
I'm in CA and not sure what state you're in, but I can you tell living in CA is better than most states, if you can afford it, which guess what, he can. Of course no state is perfect, traffic, smog are big issues in LA and many people don't like the taxes, politics of the state. He also has relationships with LeBron and Pelinka which was one of the reasons he's a top 2 or 3 choice.
I’m in NC. Hope to die here.
I lived in San Diego for 5 years. Cali is no doubt beautiful…truly, but too many issues with that State. Homeless, taxes, traffic, air pollution, cost of living, etc. All those factors make places like Texas, TN and the Carolinas better places to live IMO.
But the point is that the price (taxes, cost of living, etc) is astronomically high because the demand to live here is astronomically high...because it's amazing.
So if you're an NBA coach and money is little object, the price is much less of a downside.
Also complaining about traffic in a giant state that isn't monolithic is just ridiculous. Houston has even worse traffic than LA. Each of TX and CA have very unique circumstances depending on where you are.
Same with air pollution. Varies widely by where you are and parts of LA like near the beaches (where an NBA coach can certainly afford) are less polluted than much of Houston.
But the whole price argument is always funny. "CA is terrible because it's expensive." Well, all good things are expensive because they're in high demand.
Population trends over the next 10 years will tell the story of how people view California currently.
Historically, I agree with you. California is quite expensive due to high demand to live there. If trends continue, this will be a “historical” perspective but not a current one.
I get your point - it's a tough situation, especially given their limited options to improve over the next couple years.
.....but it's the NBA's marquee franchise, coaching one of the NBA's marquee superstar, in Los Angeles. If you're a coach with NBA aspirations, getting your first gig with the Lakers is an incredible opportunity.
I believe Juwan's wife confirmed that LeBron (and maybe AD) each made personal pleas to Juwan to come coach them. The fact that he said no is incredible.
Yes, coaching a team with LeBron has challenges, but even the coaches who ended up getting fired all seem to get other opportunities (except Dave Blatt). Ty Lue, Mike Brown, Luke Walton, etc. Spolstra is viewed as one of the best coaches in the league - no doubt due to his experience with LeBron.
What I like about that ESPN article is what it did NOT say.
....and what was that?
Anything about last year's incident with Wisconsin. Maybe it was less cataclysmic than it seemed at the time.
I dunno. Maybe. That his mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries?
Lakers: “we want to give you a Head Coach job”
Juwan: “I already got one of those. It’s very very nice”
Now go away or I'll give you the 'Eisman a second time.
Thank God. Having a coach leave to coach Westbrook and 38 year old Lebron after having a coach try to leave to coach *Kirk Cousins* might have killed me.
Well, Blue_in_texas, let us hope you get a good blood pressure monitor and check that box to be an organ donor. You are a Michigan fan. Be prepared.
Off topic: I’m out in public and there’s a guy, roughly mid 30s age, in an Ohio St. sweatshirt and hat. He’s also wearing clogs. Isn’t it crazy how many fashion failures one man can commit?
Well. If he was wearing an OSU jersey tucked into ripped up jeans shorts, that would be a worse fashion failure.
Jorts are always in fashion
/said no one ever
/said people only in Ohio.
This so cool to see a coach goofing a bit during practice. We could all rattle off a dozen coaches who likely never got close to this exuberance (cough cough Bobby Knight)
Tough to take any NBA job when your two sons are playing for your current team. I don’t expect him to not be interested after his sons graduate or move on, though.
As for the Lakers job, there’s no doubt that it is infinitely more prestigious than the Michigan job, but seeing as how LeBron has run off pretty much every coach he’s ever had that wasn’t Erik Spoelstra, I don’t blame Howard for turning it down.
You have to manage LeBron’s ego while also recognizing that you’re effectively not even in charge of your own team. LeBron is, and history indicates he will run you out of town the minute things go south. You also have to manage AD’s and Westbrook’s egos, all while trying to find a way to win basketball games.
I think that job becomes much more desireable after LeBron leaves. I’d have no interest in butting heads with him. It’s a losing battle, because he’s going to get what he wants, and if it doesn’t go right you’re going to be the one on the hook for it.
^ this ^
In this case, I would say it was more that the Laker front office, more so than Lebron, ran off Vogel after kneecapping him with an ill-suited roster. (By most accounts, Lebron was fine with Vogel) But in what will sound eeriely familiar to us, there were leaks (which, yes, S.O.P.) that "senior basketball adviser" Kurt Rambis would sit in in coaches meetings.
My feelings on Vogel are somewhat more benign than my feelings about RichRod, because rings and bc Vogel is a genuinely decent human being, but in their respective last years they were a) both thrown under the bus(s) by the organization they worked for and b) didn't do enough to extricate themselves from said bus, and c) even though they were not the most culpable parties they still had enough of a case for being fired that they not incorrectly were.
Of course getting ran off means you collect the rest of your contract while being free to go accept whatever other job you want. Getting paid millions to not coach the Lakers doesnt seem that bad.
That’s not the way these contracts work.
Westbrook’s ego ain’t what it used to be.
Would that that were true. His athleticism and skill are in notable decline, his ego hasn't caught up yet.
I think Westbrook, broken / breaking down AD, no cap space, no young talent, no draft picks and no decent role players remaining due to the Westbrook trade are the biggest factors that no one wants the job. Add in how they shanked Vogel, the Rambis (x2) factor and the continuing influence of Magic and Phil on Jeanie and then you get to LeBron.
I don’t disagree with most of the LeBron comments I’ve seen but he’s nowhere close to the main problem with the Lakers.
Barring a miracle trade, the Lakers are boxed into mediocrity for at least the next couple years. The roster is bloated with expensive, aging, often injured superstars in sharp decline. There’s no way to fix that until you turn over the roster, which you can’t really do because no one is trading much of value for old mules.
Totally agree. If it weren't for the existence of Westbrook (and resulting lack of cap space) and the lack of draft picks, lack of young talent, and lack of role players, having Lebron would still probably be a net positive.
Ann Arbor > Los Angeles
Michigan > California
Coach Howard got a Heisman before Peyton. Vols fans are going to be even more pissed at Michigan.