Kobe Bryant (Photo : NBAE via Getty Images)
The latest news from the LA Lakers has the team firing head coach Byron Scott.
Scott is one of the Lakers' former players and was a significant part of their Showtime championship teams of the 80s. Along with Magic Johnson, they were the only two players who became head coaches in the NBA (not counting Michael Cooper in the WNBA).
The intriguing talk was how the recently retired Kobe Bryant could warm his competitive fires by calling out the plays on the bench. ESPN Insider explored this possibility.
JA Adande mentioned that "Kobe has nowhere near enough patience to be a coach. Plus, hiring him to coach means eventually firing him. Who wants to have that convo?"
David Thorpe noted that two players that are highly influential to Kobe have not taken the coaching route long term: Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.
"Anything is possible, but I'd rate it as extremely unlikely, at least in the next few years," Thorpe said. "With Magic Johnson's success in business, I can see Kobe taking a bigger-picture route to affect more people. Then possibly creating an ownership group to buy a team. Like Mike."
Magic Johnson was one of the smartest players ever and since he was the coach on the court, everyone thought a transition to coaching is the next natural step. To be fair, he just took over a 28-38 1993-94 Lakers team that was one of the low points of the franchise (prior to the past three abysmal seasons). He ended up with a 5-11 record.
There are some great players who made the transition to become great coaches, but that's rare. Phil Jackson and Pat Riley did not have "great" playing careers and coaches like Doc Rivers would be placed at the borderline. Today's Steve Kerr and Rick Carlisle played important roles on their team but they would still not qualify.
The most successful players who also succeeded at coaching came from the Boston Celtics dynasties. Bill Russell became a playing coach late in his career and not a few would remember that Larry Bird won Coach of the Year in the 1997-98 season as his Indiana Pacers pushed Michael Jordan's Bulls to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals. He then went on to bring the Pacers to the NBA Finals in 2000 losing to the Shaq-Kobe led Lakers.
Kevin McHale is a great player but has yet to match his playing success. He reached the Conference Finals last season with the Houston Rockets but was fired early this season. Jason Kidd still helms the Milwaukee Bucks and the jury is out on him, too.
