Under Pressure

Kobe Bryant has never been shy about expressing his opinions.

I have been a Lakers fan all my life, thanks in large part to my dad, and I've had a love-hate relationship with Bryant. He's a great player, and I'm usually glad he's on our team, but I don't always like him. He's  rumored to be difficult to play with (in fact, coach Phil Jackson wrote a book about that). But I think he's grown a bit as a player after seeing that his attitudes wrote checks his makeshift team couldn't cash.

But there is little doubt about how the Lakers feel about Kobe. They love him, and they'll do almost anything to please him. Which is why seeing that Mike Brown was fired five games into this season, you have to wonder if Kobe shooting him the stink eye following a loss to Utah wasn't the final straw.

Sure, Kobe laughed it off in the media the following day. But, still, it didn't seem like a good sign. And, now, Brown is gone.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't love Brown as a choice. He had a rocky first season — including public clashes with Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Pau Gasol. And the team didn't seem to maximize its potential, either. I thought the same thing happened when Brown was steering the ship in Cleveland, too.

But it does seem a little unfair to blame Brown solely for all the Lakers problems this season. Sure, they brought in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard and seemed to be consensus choices to face the Miami Heat in the NBA finals. But it's November 9, Nash broke his leg in the second game, and Howard isn't totally healthy yet.

Not to mention the last team that tried this method to win a title — the Miami Heat — took months to look like the unstopable force we all assumed they'd be based on their roster. So it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that the Lakers would scuffle for a while.

Again, I'm not saying I'm sad Brown is gone, I just don't know if his firing will instantly produce the team all the fans have dreamed of. Then again, stranger things have happened.