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Lakers move quickly to get Mike Brown

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Former Cavaliers coach apparently impressed Jim Buss during a meeting in Minneapolis last week. Brown, who says he wants a 'team-first team,' hasn't spoken with Kobe Bryant, who declines to comment on the decision.

The Lakers have agreed to hire former Cleveland Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown as their new head coach..

n a surprising and quick move, the Lakers ended their search for a head coach Wednesday by agreeing to hire former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown.

The decision to hire Brown, 41, to replace Phil Jackson was made mostly by Jim Buss, the team's executive vice president of player personnel who is the son of owner Jerry Buss, according to several NBA executives not authorized to speak publicly.

The Lakers released a statement Wednesday saying they have met with Brown and are "impressed by him," that an agreement is "in place," but he hasn't signed a contract yet.

As The Times reported Tuesday night, Brown is expected to sign a deal worth about $4.5 million a season over four years for a total of about $18 million. The last year is a team option, which means Brown would get paid $2.5 million of his salary if he is not retained.

Brown posted a 272-138 record in five seasons with the Cavaliers before he was fired after the 2010 season.

"I'm here to continue to try to help this organization carve a championship path that's already been laid," Brown said Wednesday on ESPN during halftime of the Dallas Mavericks-Oklahoma City Thunder game.

"I know I'm not going to fill [Jackson's] shoes…But I am excited to help carve my own path with this team going forward," Brown said. He worked this season as an ESPN analyst.

Derek Fisher, the Lakers' veteran point guard, in a Twitter message said: "Will miss Phil but excited to start a new chapter under Mike Brown. Looking forward to a different style and energy!!"

The decision to hire Brown caught many by surprise, even some in the Lakers' front office who anticipated a coaching change to take place near mid-June.

Brown may not sign his deal until early next week because there are still details to be worked out, possibly including how much he would earn if a lockout occurs after the league's labor contract expires June 30.

Brown could get up to 50% of his yearly salary while the lockout is in place, according to NBA executives familiar with the negotiations. However, the Lakers probably would like to negotiate that package down to $1 million, the executives said.

The Lakers' coaching search began May 17 when Jerry Buss, Jim Buss and General Manager Mitch Kupchak finally had their season-ending meeting.

Last Saturday, Brown met with Jim Buss in Minneapolis while Buss was at an NBA predraft camp, according to league executives.

Brown was very prepared and wooed Buss with his presentation about defensive schemes. Brown also talked about his experience working with a superstar in Cleveland in LeBron James, and how he would coexist with Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant.

Buss returned home Tuesday night around 7:30, and about two hours later the framework of a deal was in place, the executives said.

Brown was also in the running for the head coaching job with Golden State. However, Buss did not want to lose Brown to the Warriors.

Other likely candidates for the Lakers coaching job were Rick Adelman, Mike Dunleavy, Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw and Jeff Van Gundy. But Adelman, Dunleavy and Van Gundy never got an interview with the Lakers, according to various NBA officials.

Adelman had some support from Jerry Buss, but Jim's decision carried the day.

"What you can expect from a Coach Brown team is a family atmosphere, a defensive-minded team," Brown said on ESPN. "I want a hard-working team, but yet still I want a team-first team."

Martin St. Louis big-time for Lightning again

he Tampa Bay Lightning pushed the Bruins [team stats] to a Game 7 last night and, as you might expect, Martin St. Louis had a big hand in the 5-4 victory.

St. Louis scored the equalizer in the second period and then scored the eventual game-winner at 10:15 of the third.

The Hart Trophy candidate said he relishes the big moments.

“I think that’s what you play for, whether it’s as a kid in the driveway and pretending to be in a Game 7,” said St. Louis, who also had an assist for a three-point night. “Those are the games you watch as a kid. Those are the games that get your fire going and those are the ones you want to play in.

“The do-or-die games, our backs against the wall, you want to leave it out there, and I was fortunate to get a couple of good bounces today. And guys made good plays. But I felt like in those games, I said I like to give myself a chance to help my team.”

St. Louis is one of the two leftovers in the lineup from the Lightning’s Stanley Cup team in 2004 along with captain Vincent Lecavalier.

But the rest of the Bolts got some valuable playoff experience when they came back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Penguins in Game 7 in Pittsburgh.

“We knew it was going to be a long series,” said St. Louis. “This is a good team. It comes down to one game. Luckily, all our team has been through a Game 7. Some of us have played more but we’ve had that experience. So we know what to expect.

“The fourth win is always the toughest one to get and we know both teams will battle hard to get it.”

Top line tops

The B’s first line of David Krejci, Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic carried the B’s last night, accounting for all four goals. While Krejci had the hat trick, Lucic seemed particularly determined.

“He was skating (last night). It’s as simple as that,” said B’s coach Claude Julien. “When he skates and comes at you hard, it certainly puts everybody on their heels. . . . It made a whole lot of difference. . . .

Brad Marchand was forced to miss the last couple of minutes of the game when part of the blade on his skate broke and the repair could not be done in time.

“It was pretty frustrating. It’s a tough time for that to happen. You want to be able to help the team, but it’s just bad luck,” said Marchand. . . .

Patrice Bergeron had a rare sub-.500 night in the faceoff circle as he won nine of 20 draws. . . .

The Lightning didn’t have forward Sean Bergenheim at their disposal last night. Bergenheim, who has nine power-play goals, suffered a lower body injury in Game 5 and was not able to go last night.

Young Thunder come up short in Western finals

DALLAS — The young Oklahoma City Thunder keep getting better. They just are not ready to take that next step yet.

Despite leading on the road for much of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, they couldn't extend their season after giving Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki (FSY) a second chance.
Nowitzki hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:14 left, after Russell Westbrook (FSY) couldn't handle the rebound on the first missed 3, and the Mavericks went on to a 100-96 victory Wednesday night to advance to the NBA finals

"It's kind of shocking that our season is over with," Kevin Durant (FSY) said. "But we fought hard all season. I tried to keep it positive and tell the guys, 'Hey, we had a great year.' Collectively, we've got to keep working."
Until Nowitzki's second-chance three-pointer, the Thunder had been behind for only a minute of the second half and appeared poised to win in Dallas for the second time in the series.
"I just think we played hard and just couldn't come up with the win," said Westbrook, who scored 31 points.
Instead of going home for another game, the team filled with 20-something stars will go home thinking about what could have been.
The Thunder are sure to remember the disappointment of how this series ended. They blew a 15-point lead in the last 5 minutes of Game 4 at home, then couldn't hold on with a late lead when facing elimination.
But at some point they might look back at the series against the Mavericks, a veteran-filled team focused on another championship chance, as a big learning experience.
"We want to win a championship. We respect the process that it takes to win one, and our guys do the same thing, they respect the heck out of the game," coach Scott Brooks (FSY) said. "You can't skip steps. I don't know how soon we were going to get there, but I can tell you this, those guys are not going to hope to get there, they are going to work to get there."
After taking the Los Angeles Lakers to a Game 6 in the first round of last season's playoffs before a one-point loss ended their season, the Thunder won two rounds this year — knocking Denver out in five games and needing seven games to get past Memphis.
"It's a different feeling (this year). All of us expected to go far," Durant said. "We had high expectations for ourselves coming into this year. ... After a good first round, hard-fought second round, we put ourselves in good position to fight for a finals appearance and thought we had a good chance."
Oklahoma City did better against Dallas this month than the two-time defending champion Lakers. Los Angeles was swept in its second-round series by the Mavericks, including a 122-86 loss in the same building in the ending game of that series 2 weeks ago.
"I just know that we played together as a team throughout the whole series, and just couldn't come up with the wins," Westbrook said. "We're not just worried about Dallas. We've got a whole next year to come up to worry about other teams. We're going to come in and just get better."
Westbrook and Durant are 22-year-old standouts for the Thunder, whose oldest starter for Game 5 was 27-year-old guard Thabo Sefolosha (FSY).
The Mavericks' youngest starter was 28-year-old Tyson Chandler (FSY), in his 10th NBA season.
"Next year when they're 23, they're still going to be young. We're not going to use it as an excuse," Brooks said. "I know our guys, they improve all the time. They're real committed to each other. I've never been on a team other than my high school team that we had a closer group of guys and they are all the same age and they're fighting to get better."
Durant and James Harden (FSY) scored 23 points apiece. Durant, who after Game 4 apologized to Thunder fans for letting them down, was 8-of-20 shooting with a long drought in Game 5.
Oklahoma City had an 88-83 lead when Brooks called timeout with 6 minutes left. After Nick Collison (FSY) drove for a dunk, the lead was seven points.
Durant, who missed his only shot in the second quarter and missed his first five in the second half, scored on a driving one-handed fadeaway shot with 4 minutes left to make it 92-86. The Thunder couldn't hold on from there.
"It was a difficult loss for us. We played so well in that game but didn't make enough plays down the stretch," Collison said. "We learned that we're talented enough to play for a championship. But we have to play basketball better. We need to learn how to win games better, and that's difficult."

Mubarak’s wife ordered detained

Friday, May 13, 2011

CAIRO — Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, suffered a heart attack Friday after learning that prosecutors had ordered her detention in a broadening criminal probe into the source of the family’s wealth, Egyptian state television reported.

The former first lady, 70, was being treated in the intensive care unit at Sharm el-Sheikh Hospital in the Sinai resort town, to which her family fled after a popular uprising led to her husband’s ouster three months ago.

A report on the Web site of the government-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) said the former first lady would be detained for 15 days as the investigation into allegations of corruption continues. Her husband and sons have been remanded in custody for a month on similar detention orders.

Suzanne Mubarak became an influential figure in Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, serving as the public face of many of the government’s social and welfare programs.

The MENA report said prosecutors ordered her detention because they suspect she obtained “illegal wealth using her husband’s position and political authority.”

The Mubaraks fled to the Red Sea resort city Feb. 11, after an 18-day popular uprising forced Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Since then, investigators acting at the direction of the country’s interim military leaders have been trying to ascertain the source of the Mubarak family’s wealth.

Rooting out the graft and cronyism for which Mubarak’s National Democratic Party became infamous was one of the demands of the leaders of the revolution.

The former president, 82, has been detained in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh since April 13, when prosecutors ordered his arrest. Officials have said they expect to move him to Cairo for interrogation when he is healthy enough to travel.

Hosni Mubarak has denied the allegations of corruption. He also faces charges stemming from the killing of demonstrators during the early days of the uprising.

Gaddafi says he is beyond NATO’s reach

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi defiantly insisted Friday he would outlast NATO’s pounding of the country’s capital, and his government denied a report that he had been injured in a powerful attack.

“I tell the coward crusaders — I live in a place that you cannot reach. I live in the hearts of millions,” Gaddafi said in a brief audio recording played on Libyan state television.

Gaddafi appeared to be responding to comments by the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, that the Libya leader was “probably wounded” in a major missile strike a day earlier on what was apparently an underground bunker at his compound in Tripoli. The Italian official was citing a remark by the Vatican envoy in Tripoli, Archbishop Giovanni Martinelli.

But Frattini acknowledged he had no evidence, and State Department spokesman Marc Toner said the U.S. government had “seen nothing to confirm those reports” of Gaddafi being hit. Libyan officials said Gaddafi was not injured.

NATO forces have launched strikes on Libya for two months under a U.N. resolution authorizing them to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s attacks. In recent days, the coalition has escalated strikes on the capital to degrade Gaddafi’s war machine and push him to give up.

The pressure on Gaddafi appeared likely to further escalate: The International Criminal Court said prosecutors would produce arrest warrants Monday for three people accused of crimes against humanity in connection with the Libya strife. While officials declined to revel the names, it is widely assumed one of them will be Gaddafi.

An arrest warrant would limit Gaddafi’s options if he went into exile, analysts said, since most countries are signatories to the treaty that established the court.

In Washington, the Obama administration for the first time received a senior official from the Libyan opposition at the White House for consultations. Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, discussed with Mahmoud Jibril “how the United States and the coalition can provide additional support,” a statement said. No details were provided.

The White House said it viewed the opposition’s governing board, the Transitional National Council, as “ a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people.”

But Jibril came away without any U.S. commitment to recognize the council as the legitimate government of Libya. The cash-strapped opposition has sought such recognition so it can quickly gain access to the tens of billions of dollars in Libyan assets frozen abroad under U.N. sanctions.

The U.S. government has provided humanitarian aid to Libya and pledged items like tents, boots and body armor for the rebels. The administration also has said it will work with Congress to unfreeze about $150 million in Libyan assets for humanitarian aid. But Jibril has complained that the legislative process will take too long.

Fighting continued Friday, and doctors in the main hospital in the rebel-held city of Misurata said that 10 people died and 20 were injured in rocket attacks from Gaddafi forces. One 4-year-old girl’s leg had to be amputated after a rocket struck her house, killing her two younger siblings, a doctor said.

In Brega, which is in government-controlled territory near the front lines of the conflict, the Libyan government said that a Friday morning NATO strike killed 11 Muslim religious leaders and wounded 45 at a guesthouse. It displayed gruesome photographs that it said were of the victims. It was impossible for journalists to verify the claim.

If true, it would be the largest civilian death toll during the NATO operation. NATO said it had struck a command-and-control center.