Byron Scott knows this better than anyone.
Nearly two weeks ago, at the conclusion of his second season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Scott was fired for the fourth time in 12 years.
The Lakers finished 44 games under .500 in Scott's two years behind the wheel, and in the 2015-16 season, they had the worst net rating in the league (minus-10.7). The 55-year-old's dismissal wasn't a total surprise, despite steady, season-long progress from L.A.'s young core (D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson) and Kobe Bryant's farewell tour turning the campaign into a circus.
In the end, his record was too one-sided to ignore.
Scott recently sat down with Bleacher Report to talk about why NBA coaches don't have more job security, how Bryant's final season affected him, his stance on analytics and general coaching philosophy, and how the Lakers can get back to their championship-winning ways.
Bleacher Report: Having been around basketball for so long, what did you learn over the past two years as coach of the Lakers?
Byron Scott: I guess there’s a few things that I learned. Number one: Loyalty is not what it used to be. Obviously. Number two: As far as I’m concerned, with the Kobe farewell tour, so to speak, I learned that I still have a great amount of respect and a great friend in Kobe Bryant. So those are two things just looking back over the past couple of weeks that I learned, but a couple of those things, to be honest with you, were nothing that I didn’t already know.
