Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
The Steve/Cuttino/Yao team wasn't building an identity, slowly or otherwise. It was like two teams that alternated and didn't much enjoy it. This team's getting somewhere. That one never would have.
A lot of circular logic going on in this thread.... Hope Rudy gets well. Very doubtful we'll see him back in Houston on the bench.
I think he still has the house next door to me. When I am in houston my house is right next door to the guy. When i come home in a couple weeks I'll ask him and see what's going on. Honestly I think the Rockets' pushed him out for not the wrong reasons. The man was fighting bladder cancer. His wife and his family was worried. If your spouse or someone you loved got Cancer I'm sure many of you would want to spend more time with the person and made sure they got plenty of rest. I think the Rockets' management saw that Rudy T's health was deteriorating and would most likely not survive if he continued coaching without any form of rest. The man is loved and I think is just as dedicated as JVG in wanting the team to suceed. JVG just has the bags under his eyes to show for it. I know when i talked to his wife that day about his status, she was more concerned about his health than you could imagine. I also remember that I told you guys that the man was already getting diff offers and was considering them. His determination and love for basketball and his team is so strong that I think it took the Rockets management at that time to push him to rest. If he ever got healthy enough I would love to see him back as a rocket either coaching or guiding the team from the front office. If his health is being affected by coaching the Fake show, then I hope the man takes a front office job. I think he would be great as an assistant GM. I wish for him the best and when i get back to houston i'll see what kind of information i can post up here on the board. The guy is the nicest guy ever and a heck of a class act. He wouldn't diss a player on the media like some coaches. The players are his family and if he has critisism i know he'll let them hear it just not on the front page of the houston sports page. He'd spill it to them in a locker room and make them work harder at either practice or at any free time til they got it right. Good luck to the man. He's one heck of a guy off and on the court.
i hope it is nothing with his health. now i can go on hating the lakers, and hoping they do not make the play offs
I just heard on the radio that Rudy T is leaving the Lakers because of Kobe bryant .He has stressed him out so much,that his bladder has been giving him alot of problems again. Apparently they argue alot during practice as well.
I'm not buying the Kobe argument. By all accounts they've coexisted fine. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=1982017 They are, in case anyone had forgotten, the most ominous words in the Laker dictionary. Flu-like symptoms. That was the initial medical report which circulated in the fall of 1991, when the incomparable Magic Johnson missed a few games. Magic was soon seen standing behind a lectern at the famed Forum Club in Los Angeles, making his life- and league-altering retirement announcement. I heard those words again over the past weekend, on a TV broadcast before the Lakers' victory Sunday over Charlotte. This time, the stress-ridden Rudy Tomjanovich, it was said, would miss that night's game because of flu-like symptoms, later described by the team as a stomach virus. The specifics are drastically different in both cases, but both times we found out it was more than the flu. Much more. Tomjanovich has told the Lakers he wants to resign immediately as coach, citing stress as the main force that's driving him away just over halfway through the first year of a five-year, $30 million contract to replace Phil Jackson. Although the Lakers, according to sources, asked Tomjanovich to spend the night reconsidering his plans, it's believed he will make a formal announcement Wednesday. Meantime, under interim coach Frank Hamblen, the Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 92-79 at Staples Center on Tuesday night. Team and league sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday night that Tomjanovich simply isn't handling stress as well as he used to with the Houston Rockets. The pressure he feels -- much of it self-induced, sources say -- coaching the NBA's glamour franchise as it rebuilds is apparently too much for Rudy T on top of his personal challenges. Tomjanovich, remember, is not simply the man who took over for Jackson when a run of three championships in five seasons was followed by an epic dismantling. He's also a cancer survivor and a recovering alcoholic, and sources say there are growing fears of health complications if he continues to coach. Added up, it's a big load for Tomjanovich. Bigger than the 56-year-old anticipated, obviously, and leaving the Lakers -- while stunning players, coaches and colleagues all over the NBA map -- would lessen it dramatically. "I'd be surprised if he changed his mind now," said one Tomjanovich confidant. The stress has been building even though the Lakers, at 24-19, can be considered one of the league's surprise teams. Despite losing Shaquille O'Neal and Jackson and surrounding Kobe Bryant with an unbalanced and unheralded roster, L.A. is on course to claim the playoff spot many pundits (yours truly included) gave the Lakers little hope of landing. The Lakers have even hung tough with Bryant sidelined by an ankle injury, going 5-4 without him. Yet Tomjanovich, friends say, has scarcely celebrated L.A.'s victories while taking losses harder. One pal said Tomjanovich keeps heaping pressure on himself in part because he has been so well-received by his new players and the organization. That includes Bryant. There will inevitably be speculation that Kobe was somehow unhappy with Rudy, but it's misplaced speculation. Tomjanovich has never had trouble connecting with superstars, and although it's my feeling that he erred badly by refusing to guarantee 10 to 15 post touches per game to Lamar Odom before Bryant got hurt -- to make Kobe's on-court life easier -- there was no evidence of any problems between the star and the coach. My main doubts about Tomjanovich-to-the-Lakers going dealt with how Rudy T would handle the Hollywood spotlight more than the actual coaching. Houston was a tiny market by comparison, and Tomjanovich remains one of that city's prodigal sons, virtually bulletproof there. I was in training camp with the Lakers in October and took note of the media crush that rushed at Tomjanovich as if it feared it had to tackle him to make sure he stopped to talk after his first couple practices. Right then, I wondered if the peripheral pressures attached to the Laker job would be a bigger drain on Tomjanovich than anything he has experienced before. Barring a wholly unexpected change of heart from Tomjanovich, it appears as if we all misdiagnosed the Hollywood pressure. We undersold it.
Apparently Phyllis has been asked to come back if Rudy leaves, per the LA Times. He's reportedly 'mulling it over'.
Total destruction of the Lakers was supposed to take at least until March. It you can beat 'em, you join 'em, and destroy 'em. Job well done.
It has to be Kobe...And if it is, who the hell would want to coach there because Kobe just wants a "Yes Man"... Total BS...
Sounds like Kobe didn't get him fired, but helped make Rudy want to leave, at least to me. As soon as we hear if Rudy gets a buyout or walks, we'll know for certain if Buss/Kupchak had a hand but it really sounds like they weren't pushing him out. If you're team is sitting above 0.500 and has an inside track on the playoffs, it's not the right time to initiate a coaching change. Buss forcing him out right now doesn't make sense. Evan
1st, lets all stop hating on Kobe. He had nothing to do with this. If you don't believe me, read what Marc Stein wrote: Updated: Feb. 1, 2005 By Marc Stein ESPN.com They are, in case anyone had forgotten, the most ominous words in the Laker dictionary. Flu-like symptoms. Tomjanovich That was the initial medical report which circulated in the fall of 1991, when the incomparable Magic Johnson missed a few games. Magic was soon seen standing behind a lectern at the famed Forum Club in Los Angeles, making his life- and league-altering retirement announcement. I heard those words again over the past weekend, on a TV broadcast before the Lakers' victory Sunday over Charlotte. This time, the stress-ridden Rudy Tomjanovich, it was said, would miss that night's game because of flu-like symptoms, later described by the team as a stomach virus. The specifics are drastically different in both cases, but both times we found out it was more than the flu. Much more. Tomjanovich has told the Lakers he wants to resign immediately as coach, citing stress as the main force that's driving him away just over halfway through the first year of a five-year, $30 million contract to replace Phil Jackson. Although the Lakers, according to sources, asked Tomjanovich to spend the night reconsidering his plans, it's believed he will make a formal announcement Wednesday. Meantime, under interim coach Frank Hamblen, the Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 92-79 at Staples Center on Tuesday night. Team and league sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday night that Tomjanovich simply isn't handling stress as well as he used to with the Houston Rockets. The pressure he feels -- much of it self-induced, sources say -- coaching the NBA's glamour franchise as it rebuilds is apparently too much for Rudy T on top of his personal challenges. Tomjanovich, remember, is not simply the man who took over for Jackson when a run of three championships in five seasons was followed by an epic dismantling. He's also a cancer survivor and a recovering alcoholic, and sources say there are growing fears of health complications if he continues to coach. Added up, it's a big load for Tomjanovich. Bigger than the 56-year-old anticipated, obviously, and leaving the Lakers -- while stunning players, coaches and colleagues all over the NBA map -- would lessen it dramatically. "I'd be surprised if he changed his mind now," said one Tomjanovich confidant. The stress has been building even though the Lakers, at 24-19, can be considered one of the league's surprise teams. Despite losing Shaquille O'Neal and Jackson and surrounding Kobe Bryant with an unbalanced and unheralded roster, L.A. is on course to claim the playoff spot many pundits (yours truly included) gave the Lakers little hope of landing. The Lakers have even hung tough with Bryant sidelined by an ankle injury, going 5-4 without him. Yet Tomjanovich, friends say, has scarcely celebrated L.A.'s victories while taking losses harder. One pal said Tomjanovich keeps heaping pressure on himself in part because he has been so well-received by his new players and the organization. That includes Bryant. There will inevitably be speculation that Kobe was somehow unhappy with Rudy, but it's misplaced speculation. Tomjanovich has never had trouble connecting with superstars, and although it's my feeling that he erred badly by refusing to guarantee 10 to 15 post touches per game to Lamar Odom before Bryant got hurt -- to make Kobe's on-court life easier -- there was no evidence of any problems between the star and the coach. My main doubts about Tomjanovich-to-the-Lakers going dealt with how Rudy T would handle the Hollywood spotlight more than the actual coaching. Houston was a tiny market by comparison, and Tomjanovich remains one of that city's prodigal sons, virtually bulletproof there. I was in training camp with the Lakers in October and took note of the media crush that rushed at Tomjanovich as if it feared it had to tackle him to make sure he stopped to talk after his first couple practices. Right then, I wondered if the peripheral pressures attached to the Laker job would be a bigger drain on Tomjanovich than anything he has experienced before. Barring a wholly unexpected change of heart from Tomjanovich, it appears as if we all misdiagnosed the Hollywood pressure. We undersold it. Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS. Kobe like Rudy T and had nothing against him. We know Rudy to be a players coach, who can really hate him? If you want to hate Kobe(and I'm a guy who hates Kobe, but I love watching the guy play), that's fine. But don't start making this "Kobe screw Rudy over" crap, because that isn't at all how it went down. Kobe may have done so to Phil, but Rudy isn't Phil.
It's so EASY to put this on Kobe just like they put the Shaq trade and Jackson not getting resigned on Kobe, I just don't see it. The Lakers are run by the most successful owner in the NBA and we're supposed to believe that Kobe Bryant tells him what to do? The guy has helped build multiple championship teams, he's signed checks to a handful of the greatest players, coaches and GMs in NBA history, and Kobe Bryant is his puppet master? None of the past Lakers have had that much influence on that orginization but Kobe Bryant does. Right. Maybe we'll never know the real truth, but to me the pressure of the Hollywood spotlight got to Rudy and he didn't want to risk his health. They say he was disappointed in the teams play and he might of been although when I watched that team they did play hard every night, didn't win every night but they played hard. Don't know why the disappointment, to me when you play hard your talent will take care of the win loss record, that seemed to be happening with the Lakers, guess not.
