It’s clear the Lakers management did not make kind choices or caring ones towards West especially after Jerry Buss died. At the same time, it’s also clear that at a certain point you can live your life or you can rue it, and there’s a longstanding pattern of West having a difficult time with his demons. In the end he lived a remarkable life and was a hero to fans leaguewide.

Lakers are such a joke franchise

Holmes is just bringing up old shit that has been covered over and over again so that he can gain clicks.

West, then the team’s general manager, pushed Dr. Buss to hire Phil Jackson, a decision that would come to define an entire era of Lakers dominance. Multiple staffers present at the time said the decision to hire Jackson over Rambis sparked friction between Rambis and West as well as between West and Rambis’ wife, Linda, the Lakers’ executive director of special projects who is a close friend and confidant of Jeanie Buss, now the team’s governor.

In the ensuing months, a second element compounded the tension: the romantic relationship between Jeanie and Jackson, a partnership West was uncomfortable with and one about which he privately voiced his concerns to confidants. Word of his displeasure eventually reached Jeanie.

The relationship between West and the team’s leadership began to splinter even more, with West increasingly iced out of the only NBA organization he’d ever known. In 2000, after the team won its sixth title with him in an executive role, he retired. “I felt underappreciated by leadership, and leadership is ownership,” West told the L.A. Times. “As we left the Forum to Staples Center, I’d say, ‘What am I doing here? What am I doing to myself?’ Destructive feelings, a different drama every day. Leaving was the biggest relief of my life.”

Phew I saw the headline and thought he died for a second 😅

Linda rambis of course plays into this.