Kobe Likes Brian Shaw As Jackson’s Successor

Brian Shaw has been the in-house favorite, and now with Mamba’s public support, Shaw is the odds-on favorite to succeed Phil Jackson as the Lakers‘ head coach. From Yahoo!: “With Phil Jackson expected to retire after this season, Kobe Bryant already knows who he wants to replace the Los Angeles Lakers’ Hall of Fame coach: Brian Shaw. Bryant told Yahoo! Sports on Friday that he and his teammates will endorse the longtime Lakers assistant as Jackson’s replacement. Shaw is in his sixth full season on Jackson’s coaching staff after serving as an assistant to Frank Hamblen during the second half of the 2004-05 season. ‘I feel all of the players believe in coach B-Shaw,’ Bryant said the Lakers’ Friday morning shootaround. ‘We have such a rapport with him. He’s been with us for such a long time. We all have a bit of a bias towards him. I don’t want to get in the way of management. But we’ve all kind of had our eye on him for a while.'”