Lakers senior adviser Kurt Lambis has a very high voice in the Lakers, and during this time is constantly putting pressure on head coach Frank Vogel to change the Lakers to play a more traditional big lineup, allow Howard to return to the starting lineup, and also strongly push the idea of moving Westbrook to the bench. His wife, Linda Lambis, also has considerable influence on the Lakers, and her official position with the Lakers is "executive director of special projects", although it may not seem like a significant position, but it should not underestimate her weight in the mind of team owner Jenny Bass.
Linda is Bath's best girlfriend, having worked with her for decades, while her role on the team has been closely watched over the past few years. Buzz was said to have relied more on her after Magic Johnson resigned in 2019, and according to reports at the time, Linda exerted a huge influence that summer, even helping Rob Pelinka retain her position as general manager. Since then, Aunt Jenny has publicly praised Linda, saying that during the chaos and fan protests in the offseason, Linda and her husband Kurt Lambis did so well that after the team successfully won the 2020 NBA championship, Jenny basically blamed any criticism of Linda's role on people's discomfort with women's power.
But according to a recent report by The Athletic reporters Bill Oram and Sam Amik, since the Lakers' record has fallen sharply this season, it is not only outsiders who have questioned and criticized Linda's power level, but also discord within the Lakers.
Lambis's wife, And Jenny's best friend Linda, was hired by the late Lakers owner Jerry Bass in the late 1970s to work in the Lakers marketing department, and became a partner with Jenny during this time, and in the eyes of the elder Buzz, they were a complementary combination of both business style and personality, so Linda was constantly reused. The influence of this arrangement also continues to this day, no matter that Linda's vague role in the Lakers often causes confusion and questions inside and outside the team, but she still has a very high voice in the Lakers.
Jeff Pollman once wrote a book about the Lakers detailing Linda's relationship with the team, and she was already on the team the day Jenny Bass's father, Bass Sr., bought the team, and she's been on the team ever since. He also wrote about the origin of Linda's relationship with The Elder Bath, and on the night that The Elder Buzz bought the Lakers, he went to visit his girlfriend, Debbie Zafrani, who was the top player of the local Playboys Club, half the age of The Elder Bath, and Linda Lambis was her sister. Linda later recalled why she joined the Lakers: "He just hangs out with us, he always does, and for months he kept telling us that one day he's going to have the Lakers, he loves that team, he's going to be the owner of the team." My sister and I were from Chicago, and we didn't know what those words meant, and we both thought he was weird at the time, and no one took what he said seriously. Until one night, he announced to our face that he had bought the Lakers! Let's go out to dinner to celebrate. ”
Linda may not have known at the time how important this matter would be for her, but it does illustrate the impact of history here, when there is a person who has been tied to her by her father for so long, then whether the person is good or bad, it is not an easy relationship to sever. And regardless of where the criticism or questioning of Linda comes from, and whether the opinions are right or wrong, Jenny may need more time to find someone she fully trusts. Linda is not a member of the team's think tank, nor is she the kind of person who can make decisions in the open, she has only been on this team for decades, and she is right next to the current owner Jenny, and every word of such a person will have an impact on the team's decision-making.
Jenny is also unlikely to listen to these questions about Linda, after all, Linda is not only a friend who sits next to the Lakers in every home game, but she has also played with Jenny for 11 seasons and has gained Jenny's complete trust, after all, except for the Celtics, Linda has won more championships with the Lakers than any team in history. It's not that she single-handedly created these successes, but she was a part of it, so it's no surprise that Jenny has an incomprehensible strong sense of trust in her friends.
At the end of the day, the Lakers have never given any satisfactory public answers about Linda's power and influence on the team, so fans will naturally wonder who this is, why they can always blow the wind around Jenny, and the Lakers can of course ignore the outside business. But the damn thing is that even Lakers employees are skeptical about the same thing, which may not be a good sign, so before being questioned about their ongoing and deliberately opaque management structure, the Lakers should at least make sure that everyone on the team knows exactly who is responsible for what and why.