Shaq and Mitch and Kobe and Phil, Oh My!

Were Mitch Kupchak and Jerry Buss watching the same NBA Finals I was watching? And if so, why are they talking about trading the guy who shot 63%, and not the guy who shot 38% -- and kept shooting?

Ron Corcillo

North Hollywood

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Dr. Buss, are you really in such a hurry to go back to the glory days of Del Harris?

Stephen J. Smith

Visalia

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Why is Mitch Kupchak interviewing replacements for Phil Jackson?

It’s Kobe’s team. Make him do it.

Burt Collette

Rancho Mirage

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When will the Lakers learn? In 1990, they let go of Pat Riley after all of the championships he’d brought in the 1980s. It was another decade before the Lakers won a title in 2000, after finally signing Phil Jackson. Now, they let Jackson go.

Get ready, Laker fans, it could be another 10 years before this town sees a parade.

Hershel Remer

Los Angeles

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The day that the Lakers let Phil Jackson go was the day they decided they no longer had the desire to be an elite team.

As a now former Laker fan of 30 years, I identify with the words of Gary Payton: “I didn’t sign up for this.”

Thank you, Phil, for your five years in Los Angeles. I -- and the Laker fans who enjoy winning more than theater -- will miss you.

Alan Elliott

Los Angeles

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Phil Jackson is shown the door and Jim Tracy is still here? Somewhere the sports gods are laughing (or crying).

Richard Turner

Fontana

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So Gary Payton stays on for another year, and Derek Fisher opts out. We lose one of two Lakers who showed class and 100% effort during the entire season -- the other, Karl Malone, most likely will retire -- and are stuck instead with the Big Whiner.

Forget the Shaq-Kobe-Phil soap opera. The Fisher-Payton debacle is a perfect illustration of the deep problems at the heart of the Laker organization.

Mitch Kupchak, you have much to answer for.

Bonnie Sloane

Los Angeles

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Because any trade involving Shaq must be for players with comparable salaries, I’ve done the math and figure that he can be traded for the entire starting lineup of the Detroit Pistons.

P.J. Gendell

Beverly Hills

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The Lakers remind me of the new millennium’s version of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys. Jerry West (Jimmy Johnson) builds a powerhouse and the Lakers win three championships. The club owner decides West (Johnson) is expendable and turns the reins over to Mitch Kupchak (Barry Switzer). Inheriting a proven winner with a wealth of talent, Kupchak (Switzer) uses his questionable ability, lack of foresight and stupid trades to promptly run right into the ground the preeminent franchise in his sport.

Dr. Buss, how long will we have to endure Mitch Kupchak (read Switzer, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo) before you right the ship?

Cy Bolton

Alta Loma

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Jerry Buss, why would you go to Europe during the most important time your franchise could possibly be facing? What message are you sending to your current employees, your future employees (potential free agents), and your fans by skipping town during this tiny window of huge importance?

Jason Nyhan

Glendale

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In blasting Jerry Buss for choosing Kobe Bryant, Bill Plaschke [June 19] claims there are a handful of guys like Kobe, before admitting that his comparison doesn’t include the last few minutes of a game. Which, by the way, is when most NBA games are decided, and when Shaq becomes a liability because he refuses to learn how to shoot a free throw.

Plaschke then adds that none of the “Kobes” are “capable of winning a championship by themselves,” again neglecting the fact that Shaq never won any type of championship past high school, until he was paired with Kobe.

Tom Lynch

Atlanta

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While I actually agree with Bill Plaschke that making the Lakers “Kobe’s team” is a dicey proposition and losing Phil Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal are bad for the team, I was shocked by his assertion that Shaq is “the best center in NBA history.”

That’s an insult to Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul Jabbar, Olajuwon and others who actually cared enough to play hard and had respect for the game.

Plaschke, you are officially the head of the Shaquille O’Neal Fan Club, and if the Lakers ship him out of town, you can go with him.

Jon Castro

Torrance

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Mark Heisler wrote that Jerry Buss made a choice to build a team around Kobe instead of Shaq.

I think Mr. Buss made a choice between who thinks of money before playing and who plays before thinking of money.

Romeo Valenzuela

Walnut

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So Shaq again thinks he is being scapegoated for the Lakers’ problems? This is one bandwagon I will jump on. Shaq deserves a lot of the blame.

He notes that the franchise is not moving in the right direction, but never stops to realize that his hefty salary and obscene demands for even more money are crippling the team’s ability to get younger and more talented.

Buss is a smarter businessman than most people give him credit for. He’s simply selling stock that’s on the way down and reinvesting in other areas of more potential growth.

Tom Cheng

Placentia

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Let’s look at the choices Dr. Buss and Mr. Kupchak are facing. Keep a talented, dynamic, exciting, young player who elicits ooohs and aaahs, but is also selfish, self-centered and will sacrifice the team for his own ends. Or keep a one-of-a-kind, dominant, overpowering, big man who is also selfish, self-centered and only occasional with his effort on both ends of the floor, ungrateful, greedy, making millions and says he’s underpaid?

Keep the big man. I often questioned his effort, but I’ve never once suspected him of throwing a game.

Gary Hayes

Compton

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In five years we won three championships. We always reached the playoffs. We never had a losing season. Phil Jackson brought his unique style to the Laker organization, and while at times I questioned his methods of coaching, the results were still pretty spectacular. And now he’s gone?

Don’t Kupchak, O’Neal, Bryant and Jackson get it? No other combination of talent can create greater success. It’s that simple. Didn’t we learn anything from the unselfish, and totally professional, play and behavior from guys like Karl Malone and Derek Fisher? Don’t integrity and loyalty count at all? If management allows this organization to crumble because of the emotional reaction to the loss in the Finals, then the organization gets (or doesn’t) what it deserves.

Eric Frost-Barnes

Los Angeles

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Suddenly Mr. “This is my team” is saying “This isn’t about me. It’s about team”? Just call Shaq “The Big Self-Righteous.” And may I say that Dr. Buss’ confidence in Kobe’s defense lawyers is truly touching.

Ellen Brown

Reseda

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Shaquille O’Neal is the most underrated spectacular player in Laker history. If he’s smart (and he is) he’ll join Jerry West in Memphis and win several more championships, plus have the added bonus of being really appreciated.

By the way, Mitch Kupchak contributes as much to this Laker team as a GM as he did as a player the year he had the misfortune of blowing out his knee. Now we fans have the misfortune of him blowing up the team when all we needed was a tough young backup center to give Shaq a 10-minute breather each game.

Earl Goldstein

Los Angeles

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In contrast to most of last week’s letters bemoaning the spoiled, self-centered Lakers, I can say unequivocally that Rick Fox is a true champion.

Just four days after the end of an exhausting and disappointing season, Fox was focused not on his next career move, but on the sick and injured children of Los Angeles.

Rick Fox spent his Saturday giving his time, his energy, his name and smile to the first annual HBO All-Star Family Sports Jam benefiting Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

As the administrator of the Childrens Orthopaedic Center, I can tell you that the struggles thousands of kids and their families face every day at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles are far more important than who will remain with the Lakers next year.

Diane Zeoli

Redondo Beach

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I had thoroughly convinced myself that Kobe was going to be a Clipper next year until Dr. Buss stepped in and basically indicated that he will make Kobe a partner to stay with the Lakers.

Alas. It’s probably better that way because, with the luck of the Clippers, they would sign Kobe, he’d get convicted and go to jail and we’d all lose the opportunity to see him play.

Jack Walton

Lynwood

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Where is Jim Healy when we need him? Jerry Buss has obviously gone the Leonard Tose route.

Rick Van Kirk

Irvine

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All the Lakers need is a good electrician, because their switch is definitely broken.

Frank Lansen

Seal Beach