As much as I love to watch the Los Angeles Lakers meander their way to a 22-22 record, and suffer a fate worse than death by getting blown out by 37 points to the Denver Nuggets this weekend—cue obligatory confetti toss—apparently, the rest of Laker Nation feels otherwise.
To that end, head coach Frank Vogel has spent the entire season drawing the ire of Los Angeles residents—I know this because I happen to be one of them, and I had no idea you could pelt a house or car with that many damn eggs—and now comes the news from Bill Oram and Sam Amick of The Athletic that the Lakers’ embattled leader is about this close to being fired:
By the time the Lakers and Jazz tipped off on Monday night, sources said, Vogel was coaching for his job after he narrowly avoided being fired in the wake of the 37-point loss in Denver 48 hours earlier. Had a scene like that repeated itself against the Jazz, many believed it would have been Vogel’s last game.
Vogel, who coached the Lakers to a championship in 2020 and whose contract runs through the 2022-23 campaign, is being evaluated on a game-to-game basis and remains at risk of being fired soon if the progress doesn’t continue, sources said. It’s unclear how much Monday’s win relieved the pressure that surrounds him.
As Tom Holland, and his merry band of middle-aged Spider-Men, taught us in Spider-Man: No Way Home, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And when you’re the head coach of an illustrious franchise that has the luxury of having the best players in the entire league trip over each other to force themselves onto your roster every offseason, you’re expected to produce results. So despite the fact that Anthony Davis can tear his ACL while changing the batteries on his remote control, LeBron James has Calvin Coolidge in his high school yearbook, and Russell Westbrook is out here getting toe-tagged and bagged by a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since Tommy Hilfiger overalls were still a thing...
...Mr. Vogel is still expected to win some damn games—or else.
“We understand and we respect all the Lakers legends not being happy with how we’re playing,” Vogel said this weekend after Magic Johnson and others publicly blasted the team for its play this season. “But nobody is more unhappy than we are, and we’re going to work very hard to correct it.”
Shieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. For his sake, I hope so.
Otherwise, expect assistant coach David Fizdale to take the reigns very soon.