Lakers: Sacramento Hires Mike Brown; Mark Jackson Headed to LA?
A head coaching hire was announced on Sunday, but it didn't come from the Lakers. According to multiple sources, the Sacramento Kings are hiring current Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown as their next head coach.
Which of course means that Mark Jackson, is still available for hire. Jackson has been linked to the Lakers head coaching vacancy for several weeks. What added intrigue to Jackson as a potential candidate for the Lakers job was a report in mid-April from The Athletic's Sam Amick. According to Amick, LeBron was "very enthused" about the idea of LA hiring Jackson as their next head coach.
Sacramento hiring Brown, instead of Jackson, is quite the turn of events considering that NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Saturday that Jackson was the frontrunner for the Kings job.
"Jackson is one of three current finalists for the Sacramento job and, as we’ve been discussing since Monday, widely regarded around the league as the preferred candidate of Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé over Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown and Brooklyn Nets coaching consultant Steve Clifford."
All of this leads to the question of whether or not the Lakers are seriously mulling over hiring Jackson. The former Warriors head coach has been out of the league since 2014, but appears to be heavily interested in turning in his broadcaster headphones for the coaching whistle.
Jackson is a high profile name who coached the then young Warriors to back-to-back playoffs appearances before being ousted. The former NBA point guard frequently clashed with Warriors management, but was known as a players coach.
Stein also reported that Jackson has formally interviewed for the Lakers head coaching vacancy.
Insiders, including The Athletic's Shams Charania and ESPN's Adrian Wojnarwoski, have stated that the Lakers are taking a deliberate approach to their head coaching search.
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka had previously stated that the team hopes to have a coach hired by the NBA draft on June 23rd.
