He was doing the pointing, jabbing his index finger into Chris Kaman’s chest. LeGarie also stood up periodically to yell down at the Lakers center hunched in a courtside seat Tuesday night, ball in his lap, postponing his pregame court work to listen.
Head bobbing in emphatic declarations, LeGarie gestured numerous times toward the Lakers bench where D’Antoni is positioned during games. Kaman threw his hands up a few times but had little to say to LeGarie, who represents so many NBA coaches and executives that he qualifies as more of a power player in this league than any 7-footer.
Kaman looked like a student with his lecturing teacher, definitely hearing out a man who isn’t his agent but whom he considers a friend. (Kaman benefited from LeGarie’s influence in 2006, when LeGarie coach client Mike Dunleavy insisted on Kaman getting a five-year, $52 million extension—the first time Donald Sterling’s Los Angeles Clippers ever extended anyone before contract expiration—before Dunleavy would accept his new deal from the Clippers.)
Kaman is the type who has done far more talking than listening in his life, and some of his talking this season has been about D’Antoni’s rigid, uncommunicative, distrustful coaching of the Lakers while not giving Kaman consistent playing time. Just one week earlier, Kaman had revealed that D’Antoni hadn’t talked to him for the previous three weeks.
D’Antoni has one more guaranteed season left on his Lakers contract, and the club is leaning toward retaining him despite some privately disgruntled players and massive public disdain. It’s not clear which way the organization will go with him.
But Kaman’s 15-minute conversation with LeGarie ended with ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
