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The Los Angeles Lakers went into the 2021-22 NBA season as Western Conference favorites and exited before the postseason even started, and as a result everyone is looking for a scapegoat to blame for their failure. Head coach Frank Vogel, two years from winning a championship, was the first major team figure to leave. Reports of his sacking came seconds after the season ended. Now that Vogel is gone, those who remain argue over who to blame for the Russell-Westbrook deal.
As reported by Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, multiple sources claim that the Lakers’ front office internally blames pressure from Klutch Sports, the agency that represents both LeBron James and Anthony Davis, for the Westbrook acquisition. There are two important things to note:
- While star players can put pressure on their front offices, they cannot trade. The decision to act for Westbrook ultimately had to be made by the Lakers’ front office. They were the ones who had to be present at the trade talk. They were the ones who had to settle with the Washington Wizards. You had the power to say no. You haven’t exercised it.
- Stars need leverage to put that much pressure on a front office. Neither James nor Davis got much of it. James had a guaranteed contract for two more seasons. Davis was for three. It is unlikely that either of them used the threat of departure as a weapon in their fight for Westbrook. If they did, the Lakers misjudged the situation. The stars didn’t have the leverage to force the front office into anything. If the front office thought differently, it was because they misunderstood the situation.
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What’s worse is the idea that the front office feels the need to blame someone. Ultimately, they and their best players should theoretically have the same goal: win championships for the Lakers. That means standing on the same page and finding an effective way to work together, rather than playing blame to protect their own jobs. If anything, the fact that they are acting against the best interests of the team in the name of job security is as much reason to reconsider their job security as their roster mismanagement. If Frank Vogel was fired for coaching this team, why aren’t GM Rob Pelinka and Senior Basketball Advisor Kurt Rambis credited with building it?
There’s no good answer to that, but as of this writing it seems obvious that James, Davis, Pelinka and Rambis will all be back next season. If that’s to be the case, everyone involved here needs to find a way to re-establish a productive working relationship that doesn’t involve all this gossip and deceit.