Los Angeles Lakers team president Jeanie Buss isn't afraid to speak her mind - even if it disparages certain other family members within the organization.
CBSSports.com reported Tuesday that Buss expressed understanding for center Dwight Howard's exit to the Houston Rockets because of her brother's decision to hire Mike D'Antoni. Jim Buss, the Lakers vice president of executive operations, chose D'Antoni over her fiancé, Phil Jackson in 2012 as coach.
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The decision, Jeanie Buss believes, was a big reason Howard only stayed in Los Angeles for a year.
"It's important to remember that players have a right to be a free agent in their career. Some of them exercise that right, and happily so, and some decide that they don't want to go through that process," Jeannie Buss said, according to CBSSports.com. "Dwight clearly wanted to be a free agent, and he had an opportunity to weigh all the pros and cons for where he would go next. I understand that when the decision was made to hire Mike D'Antoni (instead of Jackson as coach in Nov. 2012), that he plays an offense that doesn't suit Dwight's skills, that doesn't showcase his skills in the best possible light. And that's difficult for a big man. It's difficult for any player. It would be the opposite if there was a guard who was diminished in an offense.
"That's kind of like a jail sentence that you don't want to have to go through, and so Dwight saw that they made a commitment to building a team around Steve Nash rather than showcasing his skills. I understand why he had to look for what was going to make him happy and take on his next challenge. It had nothing to do with Kobe Bryant. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, and that's how I see things. That's that. I stick to that. And that's the truth. That's my truth."
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Clearly, Jeannie and Jim Buss have not talked about Jim's decision to hire D'Antoni over her fiancé, Phil Jackson, who was mulling over whether he was ready to coach the Lakers again.
Do you think there is a problem within the Lakers organization between Jeannie and Jim Buss? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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