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Lakers guard Steve Nash was examined this evening by Lakers team doctor Steve Lombardo. Nash will be out at least another week and will be reexamined next weekend.
Nash was originally injured in the second quarter of the Lakers October 31st game at Portland. Results of an MRI performed on November 3rd showed a small non-displaced fracture in the head of his fibula (left leg).
Although Mike D’Antoni is still on crutches after his recent knee surgery, he’s already at work with the Los Angeles Lakers.
D’Antoni coached his first practice with his new team Thursday, four days after the Lakers hired him to replace Mike Brown.
The former Knicks and Suns coach had knee replacement surgery earlier this month, delaying his arrival to take over the star-studded roster that got off to a 1-4 start to the season. Los Angeles has gone 2-1 since Brown’s firing.
— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press
Lakers decided to hire Mike D’Antoni, not Phil Jackson
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On Sunday, a person familiar with the situation, speaking anonymously because the deal wasn’t complete, said the Lakers were 95% certain Jackson was their choice. By game time, the certainty had dropped to 70%, and the rest quickly disappeared in the next few hours.
Jackson laughed at media reports that said he had wanted to skip road games and demanded to have final say in personnel decisions.
“There’s nothing about that,” he said. “Jimmy [Buss] and I had an agreement when I came back for the second tenure that there would be complete transparency in personnel decisions. I did bring up there were a couple things that went by me that time and I would be part and parcel of such a thing this time.”
Jackson said Kupchak told him during the late Sunday phone call that the Lakers thought D’Antoni was the best coach for the team. Kupchak, Jim Buss and Jerry Buss were not available for interviews.
— Reported by Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times
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The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Mike D’Antoni to a multi-year contract as head coach, it was announced today by Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak. Per multiple reports, it is a three-year deal for $12 million, and the Lakers have a team option for a fourth year.
“After speaking with several excellent and well-respected coaching candidates, Dr. Buss, Jim and I all agreed that Mike was the right person at this time to lead the Lakers forward,” said Kupchak. “Knowing his style of play and given the current make-up of our roster, we feel Mike is a great fit, are excited to have him as our next head coach and hope he will help our team reach its full potential.”
D’Antoni, who becomes the 24th head coach in franchise history and 20th in the Los Angeles era, owns a 388-339 (.534) overall NBA head coaching record in 10 seasons with Denver, Phoenix and New York.
Prior to joining the Lakers, D’Antoni most recently served as an assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski on the gold medal-winning US Men’s National Basketball Team during the 2012 London Olympics. In what was his second stint with the Men’s Senior National Team, D’Antoni was also an assistant coach for Team USA’s gold medal run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Hired to become the 24th head coach in Knicks franchise history on May 13, 2008, D’Antoni guided the 2010-11 team to their first winning season since 2000-01 and concluded his four-year tenure in New York with a 121-167 (.420) overall record. In each of his three full seasons on the Knicks bench, his teams finished in the Top 10 league-wide in scoring (4th in 2009, 9th in 2010 and 2nd in 2011).
Prior to joining the Knicks, D’Antoni spent five seasons with the Phoenix Suns (2003-08), compiling a 253-136 (.650) overall record. In his four full seasons as head coach in Phoenix (2004-08), D’Antoni was named 2004-05 NBA Coach of the Year after leading the Suns to a franchise record 62-20 (.756) mark, posted four straight 50-plus win seasons (two 60-plus win seasons), won three Pacific Division titles and a recorded a 232-96 (.707) record over that span.
D’Antoni, who also spent four years in the NBA as a player and another 13 playing in Italy, made his NBA head coaching debut with the Denver Nuggets during the lockout shortened 1998-99 season. After posting a 14-36 (.280) record in one season with Denver, he moved on to Portland, where he served one season as an assistant coach (2000-01). Returning to coach one final season in Italy (2001-02), where he had previously coached for seven years from 1990-97, D’Antoni came back to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Suns in 2002 and served in that capacity until assuming head coaching duties 21 games into the 2003-04 season.
Andrew Bynum health update: He’s still not healthy
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The Philadelphia 76ers continue to be cautious in projecting an on-court date for the return of Andrew Bynum, and are carefully listening to the team of medical professionals who are closely monitoring the healing of Bynum’s knee.
In mid-September 2012, Bynum suffered a bone bruise of his right knee. He was examined at that time by Dr. David W. Altchek of New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery, Bynum’s longtime personal doctor who is acting as the lead orthopedist in caring for Andrew’s knee. It was initially communicated to the Sixers that Bynum should refrain from basketball activity for a period of four weeks to allow the knee to heal. His knee was re-evaluated on October 22 by Dr. Altchek, who extended by an additional four weeks to November 19 the time for Andrew to refrain from basketball activity.
Andrew received a fresh MRI and was seen again by Dr. Altchek this past week on Monday, November 5.
At that evaluation, Dr. Altcheck extended Andrew’s return date for a second time by an additional three weeks. However, in what the Sixers believe is an optimistic sign, Dr. Altchek also indicated that Andrew could immediately resume low impact exercise. Low impact exercise for a period of two weeks is to be followed by three weeks of conditioning on an anti-gravity treadmill. The doctors and the team will be closely watching how Bynum’s knee responds during this five week regimen. Upon successful completion, Bynum is expected to be able to resume normal basketball activity.
If the current prognosis holds unchanged, Bynum would be cleared to resume normal basketball activity by approximately December 10. In addition, the team estimates that Bynum in turn will need an additional 1-4 weeks thereafter for conditioning, training and practice before being able to resume game play with significant minutes.
Tony DiLeo, the 76ers General Manager said, “We know that Sixers fans are eager to see Andrew Bynum play and shine in a 76ers uniform. We also know that no one is more eager to see Andrew play for the Sixers than Andrew himself. He fully realizes the key contribution he can make to the team. Hopefully, that day is coming soon.”
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The Los Angeles Lakers have hired Mike D’Antoni, signing the former coach of the Suns and Knicks to a four-year contract to replace Mike Brown.
The Lakers and D’Antoni’s agent, Warren LeGarie, confirmed the deal late Sunday night, two days after the Lakers fired Brown five games into the season.
D’Antoni got the high-profile job running the 16-time NBA champions after negotiations broke down with former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. The 11-time NBA champion coach spoke to the club’s top brass Saturday about a return.
Lakers owners Jerry and Jim Buss instead went with D’Antoni, who spent five seasons coaching Lakers point guard Steve Nash in Phoenix. Nash won two MVP awards while running D’Antoni’s signature up-tempo offense, and they won at least 54 games in each of D’Antoni’s last four seasons.
— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press
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The Los Angeles Lakers have assigned guard Darius Johnson-Odom to the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.
Johnson-Odom, the 55th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, was acquired by the Lakers from Dallas on draft night. The 6-2 guard out of Marquette averaged 15.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 105 career collegiate games. As a senior, the Raleigh, North Carolina native led his team in scoring (18.3 ppg) and earned First Team All-Big East honors in addition to being named an Honorable Mention All-American by the Associated Press.
Johnson-Odom appeared in his first career NBA game last night against Golden State. In three preseason games with the Lakers, Johnson-Odom averaged 2.0 points in 4.7 minutes.
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The Lakers are moving quickly toward hiring Phil Jackson as their next coach, with one person in the organization calling it a “95%” chance he will return for a third tour with the team.
The Lakers plan on meeting with Jackson on Saturday morning to make sure he is interested in the job. The unknown 5% in their equation is the chance Jackson doesn’t want to fill the vacancy created by the Friday firing of Mike Brown, either because of health reasons or other unknown issues.
The team realized a slew of things stemming from the 101-77 Lakers’ victory Friday over Golden State, primarily that the players wanted Jackson and fans wanted him too, in case their second-half chants of his name weren’t enough of a tipoff.
— Reported by Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times
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Lakers forward Deven Ebanks was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI in Los Angeles early Friday morning, according to law enforcement sources and booking records.
Ebanks, 23, was pulled over at 2:49 a.m. in the Hollywood area by California Highway Patrol officers and booked at 3:44 a.m.
Ebanks was released later Friday morning after posting $5,000 bail. A post on his Twitter account Thursday afternoon encouraged his followers to celebrate a woman’s birthday Thursday night at Roxbury night club near Hollywood.
Ebanks’ next scheduled court date is Dec. 7, according to booking records.
— Reported by Mike Bresnahan and Andrew Blankstein of the Los Angeles Times
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The Lakers have fired Mike Brown as coach after the team’s 1-4 start, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Brown was barely a month into his second season with the team, which struggled badly amid high expectations.
It was unclear who would be his replacement.
It was believed to be the earliest firing of a coach in the team’s history. Del Harris was relieved of his duties 12 games into the 1999 season.
The Lakers were 41-25 in Brown’s first season, losing to Oklahoma City in the second round of the playoffs.
— Reported by Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times
The Lakers have had a healthy Nash in the lineup for only 1½ of their five games so far thanks to a leg injury, while Howard has acknowledged that he’s still recovering from the back surgery that brought a premature end to his 2011-12 campaign and knocked him out of the London Olympics. Kobe Bryant has also been playing through a foot ailment.
The Lakers are off to the worst start in the Western Conference despite carrying the league’s largest payroll at just over $100 million, which would trigger an estimated luxury-tax bill at season’s end of nearly $30 million.
The team has also been trying to institute a form of the Princeton offense, a system that relies on reads and ball sharing in order to take some of the offensive load off Bryant. The results have been mixed, at best.
— Reported by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com