Brian Shaw has put in his time. He was a long-time and highly regarded assistant coach under Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers. When he was bypassed for Mike Brown when Jackson retired, Kobe Bryant was upset.
Shaw was insulted and bolted to the Indiana Pacers, where he served this season as associate head coach on a team that surprised many.
Now, he’s in the running for two head-coaching positions: in Charlotte and Orlando.
Shaw, who won three titles as a player, is among the hottest assistants in the league and could land in with the Magic. Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, reportedly is considering Shaw and current Lakers assistant and former Missouri coach Quinn Synder.
Jerry Sloan, the Hall of Famer and former coach of the Utah Jazz, pulled his name from consideration for the Charlotte job.
Snyder interviewed with Jordan and the Bobcats for a second time this week. And while Shaw has more NBA experience than Snyder, winning three titles as a player and another two as an assistant coach with the Lakers, he has never been a head coach. Snyder has only two years’ experience as an assistant coach in the NBA — starting in 2010-11 with the Philadelphia 76ers followed by last season with the Lakers — but prior to that spent seven seasons as the head coach of University of Missouri followed by three seasons as the head coach of the Austin Toros in the D-League.
