Mike Brown is a Great Choice as Lakers' Coach

The most important person in the Los Angeles Lakers organization is not Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Jeannie or Jim Buss. It's Mitch Kupchak. Surprised? Don't be. Kobe will eventually retire or move on. So will the others to be replaced by other great players, but a proven multiple championship caliber General Manager is hard to come by. The hiring of Mike Brown has Mitch Kupchak written all over it and is about the Lakers future, not Kobe Bryant's.

Phil Jackson, with his triangle offense won six championships in Michael Jordan's Chicago. With that on his resume, a team led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant coupled with the ultimate owner in Jerry Buss Phil lands in LA walking on water. However, Jerry Buss' hunger for championships at any cost, Phil's background, Jeannie's playground where Phil likes to play usurped the great Jerry West's authority pushing him completely out of the picture. Phil wins five more titles. Mitch is kind of caught in the middle because the coach that he should have authority over is his boss's boyfriend.

With all the buzz over the past two weeks about who will be the next Lakers coach Mike Brown's name never came up, in public anyway. Brian Shaw, the Phil Jackson prot©g© was Kobe Bryant's number one choice, but the triangle saw its last days in LA after the thumping at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks.

The others candidates like Rick Adelman who coached two Portland Trailblazer teams to NBA Finals appearances was an okay choice, but the 64 year old is just not a good fit for Los Angeles style basketball. Blue-collar basketball doesn't work in Tinsel Town. That may seem like an elementary opinion but it's true.

Jeff Van Gundy took his New York Knicks to an NBA final with Patrick Ewing and company, and is a good chalk board coach, but Van Gundy would be a push over for this Lakers' roster.

Mike Dunleavy, well he's one tough SOB, but he proved that LA ain't his town with his previous stint as Lakers head coach, and more recently as head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Not a good sell for the Hollywood season ticket holders.

Then there's "Coach K" (Mike Krzyzewski), Kobe's other choice. Never coached at the NBA level, won 4 NCAA championships, won Gold Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey. Great choice, good personality, able to rub shoulders with the Hollywood types, but like Rick Adelman, he's 64 years old, much too late to start a new career with the best franchise in sports.

It was time for Mitch to bring in a good young coach who has championship level experience, a good coaching record, back-to-back 60 win seasons, a trip to the NBA finals, 2009 NBA Coach of the Year, and he's a big imposing fellow who attended the University of San Diego. Not (CSU) San Diego State or the University of California, San Diego, but the little known tiny Roman Catholic college tucked away in the scenic Linda Vista section of San Diego. It's a good school for good students.

The Lakers have a history of doing the unexpected, and they're the only team in any sport with 10 championships in the past 30 years. Mike Brown will do well because the team that he is taking over just got punked in the playoffs and they need to swallow their pride and go with this flow of new direction.