Lakers Coach Brown In No-Win Situation With Bynum

NBA no comments

Lakers Coach Brown In No-Win Situation With Andrew Bynum

Lakers’ center Andrew Bynum was, once again, ejected in Friday night’s game against the Houston Rockets, hurting his team’s chance to win a game and stay atop the Pacific Division in the Western Conference.

There’s nothing more frustrating for a man than having a great relationship going on with a hot girl, only to watch it begin to unravel, not by your doing, but simply because she begins to go crazy. At first things are great. You’re excited, she’s excited. But after time, you notice she’s starting to get a little moody, and then she starts getting sarcastic and sullen with you, acting as if she now holds the reigns to the relationship.

Finally, she really starts to lose it, throwing tantrums in public and accusing you of cheating on her in front of your parents. At this point, you are officially in a no-win situation. You can’t stay with her; no man should ever put up with such things. You don’t want to leave her, either, because she can be so sweet and beautiful, at times.

Coach Vs Player

Such is the case with Lakers head coach Mike Brown and his relationship with center Andrew Bynum.

Let me just be frank for a second. Andrew Bynum is a moron. Whatever it is that is troubling him in his head, he needs to get it fixed real quick, because he is destroying his team.

The sad part of all this is that Mike Brown will likely end up taking the fall for this one. If the Lakers underachieve and get knocked out of the first round of the playoffs, Mike Brown will be the first to get the boot, if anyone does.

There have been rumblings and mumblings that Brown has lost the Laker locker room, but what if the Laker locker room has simply lost itself? How is a coach supposed to control a locker room in a league where the players are considered more important than and to have more pull than their head coach?

It’s next to impossible to run things your way when you have selfish players on your team who will simply balk at anything they don’t deem fitting.

Not Just L.A.

We are not just seeing this type of situation in Los Angeles. Although he is not displaying the same ridiculous antics as young Bynum, Dwight Howard has given Stan Van Gundy his fair share of headaches in Orlando. Howard took his team on a soap opera-like roller coaster ride throughout the season, flirting with other cities and taking nights off when get got upset.

Then, Howard reportedly asked the front office to fire head coach Stan Van Gundy. Sadly, the writing already seems to be on the wall. In this day and age in the NBA, when it comes down to coach versus player in a conflict of interests, the player always wins. Van Gundy may not be with the Magic this season, even after leading a team of Dwight Howard + Nobodies to yet another high-seed playoff berth.

Today’s Reality

The truth of the matter is, today’s reality in the NBA says that a star player’s opinion is worth more than a mature head coach’s. By allowing this type of thing, the NBA is effectively putting their franchise in the hands of 24 year old nimrods, rather than experienced, veteran coaches.

The only way to stop this sort of mutiny from players like Andrew Bynum is to stop rewarding them for this type of behavior. Firing the coach and keeping the player who instigated much of the problem is just like a reward. A slap-on-the-wrist $25,000 fine is going to cut it, as evidenced by Bynum’s ejection last night, the day after he was fined for insubordination.

The onus is also on the veteran players in the locker room who do have their head on straight. I don’t want to hear Kobe Bryant say that Bynum is having “growing pains”, or that he is a grown man who needs to figure it out.

If Kobe Bryant truly wants to win, as he says he does, then he, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, and other veterans need to sit down and have a very serious talk with young Andrew Bynum. This Lakers team full of veterans inexplicably lacks leadership on and off the court, and it’s up to the players to change the course.

Then, and only then, will the Lakers have a chance at making a run at the Western Conference Title.

Unfortunately for head coach Mike Brown, the only way he may get a win out of this whole thing is by hoisting a trophy over his head at the end of the year. That’s just the sad reality of today’s NBA.