Rumors

Baxter Holmes: I think some of the siblings, according to sources — and even in some talks with Johnny and Janie — were wondering a little bit about whether there was a private negotiation that Jeanie had with Mark Walter. Some of the suspicion comes from what they described as bonus payments to some members of Jeanie's inner circle because of the sale. That includes people like Linda Rambis, who I was told got paid $24 million, and Kurt Rambis, who got $8 million. I'm told those numbers were a nod to Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers. I was also told that Joey and Jesse Buss wondered if she had violated a breach of the trust by negotiating privately — and if there could be a judge who steps in and says this was done improperly, something like that. Ultimately, that didn’t happen.

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The two brothers, along with some of their siblings, had learned during their June meetings and then in the days after that some members of Jeanie's inner circle stood to receive substantial bonuses from the sale. One person with knowledge of the events said that those people included Linda and Kurt Rambis, Grigsby, McCormack and Harris, the team's president of business operations. Linda Rambis stood to pocket $24 million, the same as McCormack, Grigsby and Harris. Kurt, meanwhile, stood to make $8 million. The figures were a nod, of all things, to Kobe Bryant, who wore the numbers 24 and 8 during his 20-year Lakers career. The total figure for such payouts was $114 million, the same figure that Janie said she was told during her June meeting with Grigsby, McCormack and Jeanie.

ESPN

Robert Horry: “I told you a story about when all of a sudden the hand goes up and everybody like Dennis about to say some profound f*cking and he goes to tell Kurt, ‘This is the worst f*cking coaching job I ever seen in my life.’ Has Shaq ever told y’all that story? Oh my goodness, man. We had just got Dennis Rodman on the Lakers, right? Kurt Rambis had took over as coach and we’re in a locker room and you know usually you, you know, you know make halftime adjustments. Rodman ain’t said [__] to nobody. He been in like a month. All of a sudden he just does this little hand goes up and everybody’s like, ‘Okay, Rodman, say something.’ We all look like, ‘Oh, Rodman about to say something. Here we go.’ ‘This is the worst [] coaching job I ever seen in my life. Ain’t no [] adjustments on the board.’ And he just goes off. And we’re all like, damn. Well, tell us. And then the next day, Kurt threw him off the team. Eye for an eye.”

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Tas Melas: NBA front office executives or coaches I’ve seen at #EuroBasket: Bucks: Jon Horst, Doc Rivers, Darvin Ham. Lakers: Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss, Kurt Rambis. Trail Blazers: Chauncey Billups. Kings: BJ Armstrong, Doug Christie. Nuggets: Josh Kroenke.

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Buss and Pelinka were part of a contingent of Lakers staff that included Kurt and Linda Rambis and director of player performance and health Dr. Leroy Sims, who made the flight from Los Angeles to Poland earlier this week to watch Dončić and the Slovenian national team open play against Poland on Thursday night in Katowice. “We just wanted to make a statement to Luka that we support what he does for his country. That’s really important to the Lakers when we have a player that’s the face of our franchise, just to show that support for him,” Pelinka said. “And it’s just great to see him with his teammates, interacting, having fun. As you said, he is in great shape, really committed to working hard this summer, and to be able to watch that in person was worth flying over the ocean to come be with him.”

New York Times

On Saturday, the Dodgers gave fans who attended the game Showtime Lakers T-shirts and a complimentary cartoon design of the legendary Lakers wearing Dodgers uniforms. Lakers legends Michael Cooper, A.C. Green, Kurt Rambis, Byron Scott, Mychal Thompson and James Worthy also made an appearance for a pre-game ceremony and threw out the first pitch.

People

Kurt Rambis was heavily involved in putting together Redick’s coaching staff , a process that took up until the end of Summer League. In an effort to keep closer tabs on information running through the front office, sources say every decision involved Pelinka, the Rambises, Jeanie Buss and Tim Harris throughout the process, which led to far more conversation about each move and wound up gumming things up to the point of complete ineffectiveness. “Rob is a smart dude,” said a Western Conference scout in the halls of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “You aren’t going to get fired for decisions you don’t make. If you involve your bosses in those decisions, you’re that much safer.”

Lakers Daily

Rambis, of course would relent, he’d join the Lakers and change his entire life by becoming a beloved member of Showtime and a NBA lifer. Following West’s death Tuesday at 86, Rambis remembered the iconic former Lakers star and executive. “His drive, his competitiveness, his obsession with winning, I mean, you felt that,” Rambis told The Times. “You felt that kind of good competitive pressure that he put on himself and the osmosis, in a lot of ways, of how he carried himself and things that he said. And, you know, the anxiety that he went through watching games and how relieved he was when you won, all of that culminated in helping the Lakers develop this competitive winning culture.”

Los Angeles Times

Magic Johnson: I had so much fun last night with four of my Showtime Laker teammates Byron Scott, Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis, and the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We had a great discussion about how we performed as a team, our goals were aligned with each other, pic.twitter.com/4baWkPDQnI

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Ham could give this whole concept a strong nudge by benching Westbrook, but the rookie coach brought him back for the final four-plus minutes in Sunday’s fall-from-ahead loss to the Trail Blazers with the Lakers up 98-90. Yet another ace colleague, Ben Golliver of The Washington Post, was in the building and has this report from the scene on how it appeared as though Ham was catering to Westbrook’s past All-Star stature when he could have been reducing his role in Sunday’s crunch time. Questions about and criticism of Jeanie Buss' inner circle are inspired, above all, by the team's ongoing struggles.

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On the cusp of training camp, as media day neared and the topic of Westbrook’s uncertain future continued to dominate the conversation around the NBA, sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations say the Lakers’ key decision-makers spent several days engaged in deep conversations about the feasibility of a blockbuster trade with Indiana. Vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, owner Jeanie Buss and senior basketball adviser Kurt Rambis seriously considered sending Westbrook and unprotected first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 to the Pacers for center Myles Turner and guard Buddy Hield, sources said. They held a series of meetings in the days leading up to camp to analyze the possible Pacers deal from every angle, with the views of Ham and Lakers executives Joey and Jesse Buss also being strongly considered in the process. The organization even delayed the midweek news conference for Pelinka and Ham as the debate continued.

The Athletic

James Plowright: HBO are looking for a someone to play Mitch Kupchak in “Winning Time”.

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According to the buzz in NBA coaching circles over the weekend, Ham has likewise been promised the autonomy to pick his coaching staff and is said to have received assurances that Lakers senior advisor Kurt Rambis will not be a regular presence in coaching meetings like he was with Vogel. If those promises come to fruition and Ham actually receives all that latitude, they will rank as significant concessions secured by a first-time NBA head coach.

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Most of the front office, it seems, has zeroed in on Darvin Ham, with former head coaches Terry Stotts (Portland) and Kenny Atkinson (Brooklyn) also in the mix. Ham was briefly an assistant with the Lakers, and according to league sources, he is the favorite of the Phil Jackson-Kurt Rambis layer of Lakers decision-makers. “I think those guys want a young coach they can mold a little bit,” one Western Conference executive told Heavy.com. “I do not think Darvin is a pushover by any means. I just think that they want a guy they can point in the direction they want to go, more traditional basketball, using Russell Westbrook a certain way.”

Heavy.com