NEWSWORTHY ITEMS TO SHARE

L.A. Clippers assistant coach Alvin Gentry

has caught the eye of General Manager

Mitch Kupchak. They spoke by phone

this week and discussed the possibility

of a full time Coaching position with our

L.A. Lakers for this coming season.

Gentry plans to meet both Kupchak and

the Lakers executive vice president of

basketball operations Jim Buss for an

interview. Former Memphis Grizzlies

coach Lionel Hollins also will be attending

an interview this week. The Lakers spent 

part of last week interviewing both Byron

Scott and Mike Dunleavy. Gentry coached

point guard Steve Nash in Phoenix too.

He speaks glowingly about our Kobe Bryant.

Kupchak has made it known that he wishes

who so ever does finally take the coaching

job, he will maximize Bryant's productivity

in the post after playing only 6 games last

season because of double injuries. Bryant

was not thrilled over former coach D'Antoni's

fast paced system that contradicted his

preference for a more methodical offense.

Although the Lakers hope to hire their next

coach before the NBA draft on June 26,

they are not expected to finalize the

coaching search within the coming 2 weeks.

It appears likely the Lakers' initial set of formal

interviews will entail follow-up meetings.

The following interviews include Kurt Rambis,

George Karl,Hawks Quin Snyder, Mark

Jackson and even the OKC point guard,

former Laker, Derek Fisher. Regarding all

of these interviews, it is certain that the

draw will become a far shorter list of

candidates eventually as time goes by.

Today, May 28, marks the 76th. Birthday

of Basketball Hall of Famer, Jerry West.

Happy Day Jerry!

Babs Wells

NBA LAKERS NEWS

Lakers owner Jim Buss and General Manager

Mike Kupchak are right now painstakingly

in search of a new Lakers coach. To rebuild the

team, being picked for seventh place in the

draft, there could pose some impending problems.

The first problem to ferret out is to figure out

which direction the franchise wants to go.

If that still seems to become a problem, then

decisions might just become a waste of time.

Kevin Ollie's name has been mentioned but

it seems that he is not all that interested to

become a head coach. No coach will be decided

upon, however, until it is first determined what

kind of a team we will be having. There is also

the matter of what the coach's philosophies

are for how they might fill their coaching staff.

The Lakers would have to prove the anatomy of

a coaching search that would involve many 

twists and turns that no one can fully anticipate.

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the top pick in

the NBA draft and as Lakers, we got number 7.

Kevin Love most certainly would be great pick

if we do have that chance to be able to pick him.

Given that 7th place is not the best vantage

point for choices so we shall wait and see.

Another item to be mentioned today is the death

of Don Meyer, age 69, top basketball coach

for college basketball. He came back from a near

fatal car accident and having liver cancer before

closing out his career. On Sunday in South Dakota, 

passed away with a 38 year career with many years

spent at Lipscomb in Tennessee and in Northern State 

in South Dakota. He is survived by his wife and three 

children. R.I.P. now Don.

There will be tid-bits of information as I see enough

and hear enough then later on in my blog.

Until then, Adios.

Babs Wells

SO SORRY COACH

We did not see this coming, did we?

With such an injured roster this

past year and so many new players,

the season was jinxed and Coach

Mike D'Antoni could not stop that

stranded train no matter how hard

he may have tried. No, I did not 

like his strategy of such lack of

defense at all, but I can not ever

stamp him as not trying his best.

He had earlier been in Denver,

and in Phoenix and in New York

so coming for us in LA. I do think

most all of us wanted to see it

all go well for both players & coach.

Best of luck now is about all we

can muster and then wonder...

who will be filling his shoes?

And then we had the fiasco of 

our co-Staples Clippers bomb.

To realize in this day and in this

age, some idiots could spout off

with such malice goes beyond

reason. NBA Commissioner Silver

stating the obvious for the whole

world to hear, that for such angered

words spoken by Donald Sterling

the verdict came down hard and

hard it should have been. Banned

from NBA games and stifled on other

NBA projects plus a big fine, was what

most all of us would have wanted.

Thank you for allowing us this.

Another former NBA owner has

left us, but not in this same manner.

Michael Heisley, age 77, has died.

He had bought the (then) Vancouver

Grizzlies and moved the team to 

Memphis and then hired Jerry West

to be president of basketball operations.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did

the honor of addressing his death

before the Memphis and Oklahoma City

play-off game Saturday night.

Today is May Day and yesterday, the

very last day of April. Basketball Hall

of Famer, Isiah Thomas had his 53rd

Birthday. A late Happy given to you!

So now the playoffs are in full swing

and we, as Lakers, are among those

watching and waiting until October

when hopefully we can begin a new

season plus happily accept a new coach.

BABS WELLS