Bob Myers is a popular man.
The front office architect of the Warriors dynasty has some teams thinking, “if we can’t beat him, poach him.” When Magic Johnson abruptly stepped down with the Lakers, Myers (a UCLA grad who lived in Los Angeles as an agent) saw his name came up quickly in league circles as a guy the Lakers had to call. Longshot or not, make the call.
The Lakers didn’t, apparently giving all the front office power to GM Rob Pelinka, and Marc Stein of the New York Times says in his latest newsletter it’s a mistake for the Lakers to stick with the status quo. (Stein just touches the surface of why this move is set up to fail, there also are issues of management style, but that’s a story for another day.)
In his story, Stein threw in an interesting note: In the wake of the Bryan Colangelo Twitter scandal, the Sixers tried to hire Myers away from the Warriors.
Smart move by Philly to make a run at the big names. In the end, the Sixers went with someone in house in Elton Brand, who ended “the process” by trading for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris and making Philadelphia a “win now” team. How well that works out remains to be seen.
The Lakers would be smart to take some swings at the big names, but Jeanie Buss seems to lean towards going with the person she knows. That’s asking a lot in what will be an important and challenging summer for the Lakers.
