Lakers Management: What Might Have Been

What could the Lakers look like currently if faces from the past had stuck around?

Can you imagine Tommy Lasorda leaving the Los Angeles Dodgers organization to take a front office position with the San Francisco Giants? How about Gregg Popovich departing the San Antonio Spurs to work for the Minnesota Timberwolves? Or Bill Belichick leaving the New England Patriots for a job with the Miami Dolphins?

Every organization in every major sport has one or more iconic figures who will forever be a symbol of the franchise. Red Auerbach is synonymous with the Boston Celtics, Bill Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers, and John Elway with the Denver Broncos. It is impossible to picture any of these men leading any other team.

For the Los Angeles Lakers, there are three towering figures whose leadership and stature virtually forged the franchise’s identity over the past 50 years: Jerry West, Pat Riley, and Phil Jackson. For those fans who have a keen appreciation of the Lakers’ history, the mere mention of these names conjures up memories of countless championship celebrations and the kind of swagger that traditionally made the Lakers a team that opponents feared.

So what does it mean that all three left the Lakers’ organization and are today working for other franchises that compete with the Lakers? How is it even possible that this could happen? If any of them were leading the team today, it is inconceivable that the Lakers would be anywhere near the mess they have become.

Stoking the fire, here’s a a hypothetical look from each perspective of what the Lakers could’ve been had West, Riley, and/or Jackson stayed in LA.

Next: Jerry West