L.A. Lakers and UCLA suffer from Basketball Brand Mismanagement

By Howard Ruben

Your brand is everything. Mismanagement of it can have long-lasting, negative repercussions and take years to repair. Just ask the hard-court followers and fans of the L.A. Lakers and UCLA Bruins.

In both instances, the future head coach of each team is what’s creating the turmoil, stress and outright anger among the faithful. Management’s actions (or lack thereof) have been nothing short of embarrassing.

UCLA and the Lakers have seen better days

Lakers Head Coach Luke Walton brings new meaning to the expression Lame Duck, while the vacant UCLA job remains open (100 days and counting). Bruin faithful wait for the best B-level coach the athletic department can muster up from among the scrap heap of A-level rejections.

Where to start? Responsibility starts at the top – in the case of the Lakers, that would be owner Jeannie Buss, president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka. As the team piled up injuries and losses, Walton was essentially hung out to dry, management allowing speculation to run rampant as the season spiraled out of control.

On the day LeBron James went down with an injury in December, the Lakers sat as the fourth seed in the Western Conference of the NBA with a 21-14 record. Over the next 17 games, they won only six as the offense staggered and the defense collapsed. They lost much of their young core - Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma - to various injuries. To add insult to injury, management very publicly tried to trade for All Star forward Anthony Davis by offering New Orleans most of its starters, the young core of a promising nucleus. Sure enough, no deal was made. Walton was left with a disgruntled young club for the remainder of the season.

Virtually every NBA pundit has said or written that Walton is gone once the season ends. Really? Why, because SOMEONE must be the fall guy? Anyone who thinks the reason L.A. will miss the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year is because Luke Walton is a bad coach doesn’t understand the game of basketball.

Someone who does – namely Kobe Bryant – had this to say in Walton’s defense.

If you thought the Lakers situation was a mess, consider what is happening in Westwood at UCLA. This one-time mecca of college basketball has become a laughingstock. Its inability to attract and sign an A-level head coach shows how far the program has fallen under the leadership of athletic director Dan Guerrero.

After firing UCLA coach Steve Alford in mid-season, the Bruins limped through a mediocre Pac-12 campaign and finished out of the NCAA tournament. In its search for a new coach, Guerrero and advisers have stumbled, fumbled and bumbled their way through a large list of prospects, many of whom rejected the opportunity or would not talk about any new position until the NCAA Championship weekend was over. So, naturally, Guerrero and company panicked and began offering the job to the wrong candidates.

UCLA offered Kentucky’s John Calipari $48 million over six years, which was less than he is currently earning. It apparently triggered the hierarchy at Kentucky to give Calipari a lifetime extension, which placed egg squarely on Guerrero’s face. The school then moved to sign Jamie Dixon away from TCU but pulled out because they didn’t want to fork over $8 million to buy him out of his contract. Their next move is anyone’s guess.

As pointed out in this Los Angeles Times column by Bill Plaschke soon after Alford was fired, UCLA basketball is no longer the UCLA basketball of John Wooden, much to the consternation of alumni who hold the same lofty expectations. The school needs to come to grips with who it is, not who it once was. If they want to be perceived as the mecca, they need to act like it and reshape their Bruin culture starting at the top.

Two iconic L.A. sports franchises continue to suffer as they make one mistake after another in brand mismanagement. As fans we can only hope for better days. As critics, we see the blunders for what they represent – a pure lack of understanding on how to stay relevant and thrive in the high level, high pressure world of college and professional basketball.

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