So naturally they bring in a guy who lost twice as many games as he won at his most recent stop and whose biggest claim to Lakers fame may have been decapitating Kevin McHale in the 1984 NBA Finals:
All friendly barbs aside, Kurt Rambis is just one of many candidates the Lakers are expected to interview as they seek to find a replacement for Mike D’Antoni, who resigned back on May 1.
Few remember that Rambis did have a somewhat successful stint as the Lakers’ skipper back in 1998-99, when he compiled a 24-13 record over 37 games before staying on as Jackson’s assistant when the Zen Master first arrived in L.A. the following season.
It wasn’t until a full 10 years later that Rambis got a second shot, this time as the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2009-2011—Kevin Love’s first two seasons in the NBA.
After two years of rancorous relationships and incessant losing (32-132), Rambis—a noted triangle disciple—was let go, before being brought back as a Lakers assistant during the 2013-14 season.
More grizzled fans might remember him as L.A.’s bespectacled, mustachioed enforcer during the Showtime era of the 1980s—a horn-rimmed glasses-wearing, elbow dropping, garbage bucket-getting forward whose goofy appearance belied his hard-nosed presence.
It seems likely the Lakers are interviewing Rambis more out of common courtesy than any genuine belief that he can be L.A.’s leader of the future. Particularly with such names as Lionel Hollins, Alvin Gentry and Mark Jackson—just to name a few—still floating around.
But does he deserve such a rancid rap?
