Frank Vogel just had to grin and bear it after a report about his future with the Los Angeles Lakers leaked late on Sunday night.
The Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets in overtime during their regular season finale. While the win was a gritty come-from-behind victory led by the team’s young players as most of the regulars sat out, the euphoria came to an abrupt halt just minutes after the final buzzer. Shortly after the game ended, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted a report that Vogel will be fired as Lakers coach as soon as Monday.
That led to one of the most awkward press conferences of all-time for Vogel, who had not yet spoken with reporters when the report was released. Vogel bluntly stated that “I haven’t been told s–t” by Lakers management when asked about his job status. He did add though that Wojnarowski’s report reached him before he walked into the room for his remarks.
Full response:pic.twitter.com/UWzKtP2Cs2
— (@_Talkin_NBA) April 11, 2022
Lakers greats James Worthy and Robert Horry also expressed displeasure with the timing of Wojnarowski’s report on the team’s postgame show.
Robert Horry and James Worthy react to the timing of the Frank Vogel news live during the postgame show pic.twitter.com/sSOnx4vmw0
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 11, 2022
Everybody and their dog knew that Vogel was getting canned after he failed to qualify for a 20-team postseason despite having a roster with five future Hall of Famers, including the arguable GOAT in LeBron James. But letting Vogel find out that he got fired from a tweet is a brutal way to do a guy who led your team to a championship less than 18 months ago.
Perhaps the fault here lies with Wojnarowski for putting the scoop first and all else second. But you would think that Wojnarowski had the green light from someone on the Lakers to put that report out there. After all, Vogel hadn’t exactly been popular within the organization this season.
