USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick examines which coaching candidates have sparked interest.
For anyone who didn't understand why Mike D'Antoni might have wanted out before, it took only 40 minutes after news of his resignation as Los Angeles Lakers coach first broke to become painfully clear.
That's how long Magic Johnson waited before he danced on D'Antoni's coaching grave, the Lakers legend sending a tweet heard 'round the basketball world that said everything about why this partnership was so problematic. D'Antoni's seat hadn't even cooled, and Johnson was bringing heat.
"Happy days are here again!" he wrote, drawing 20,000 retweets and 11,000 favorites in the first hour. "Mike D'Antoni resigns as the Lakers coach. I couldn't be happier!"
RESIGNED: D'Antoni decides to leave Lakers
REACTION: What Lakers players are saying
Actor Lee Majors once made being The Fall Guy in Los Angeles the job that everyone wanted, and there was a time when being Lakers coach was the coolest gig around too. But this is a different time for the fallen franchise, and D'Antoni's fall-guy role was something far more unsavory.
This Lakers fan base that followed Johnson's lead throughout the D'Antoni tenure never forgave him for not being Phil Jackson. He was the surprise hire back in November 2012, when everyone from Kobe Bryant to the equipment managers to the Staples Center parking attendants were talking as if Jackson's return was imminent. D'Antoni absorbed much of their angst and took the blame for their demise, with the Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash injuries coupled with Dwight Howard's departure via free agency setting the stage for the worst season (27-55) since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1960.
So as was first reported by USA TODAY Sports on Saturday, D'Antoni kept pushing for Lakers management to pick up the 2015-16 team option on his contract as an unofficial way of providing hazard pay for this job. They only wanted to ensure that he'd be back for next season, but he wanted to avoid the lame-duck status and all the criticism that likely would have come with it.
GALLERY: Mike D'Antoni as Lakers coach
But Johnson shouldn't be so quick to do his happy dance. With or without D'Antoni, the Lakers are still in the toughest of spots.
They have a roster to build around the aging and ailing Bryant and – largely because of Bryant's two-year, $48.5 million extension that begins next season – limited tools with which to do it. They have a front-office group in general manager Mitch Kupchak and executive vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss that is still finding its way in this post-Jerry Buss era that began with the late owner's Feb. 2013 passing. And now, they have a coaching search that will change nothing of the fact that their rebuilding challenge is one of the most daunting in the league.
It was immediately unclear whom the Lakers have eyes for now, but the usual suspects will likely apply. Former New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers coach Byron Scott is doing television work for the team and was always a favorite of Jerry Buss during his Lakers playing days. Former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins is widely respected and certainly smart and tough enough to handle the rigors of this rebuild.
Former Lakers assistant Ettore Messina, a globally-respected coach who's currently with CSKA Moscow, has had people within the league wondering for quite some time if this might be the year he lands an NBA head coaching job. Kurt Rambis, the former Minnesota Timberwolves coach who was once on that unofficial short list of candidates to replace Jackson during his days in Los Angeles, was an assistant under D'Antoni and could slide over to the top position during this trying time.Kevin Ollie's rise through the coaching ranks has been noticed throughout much of the NBA, and the former player who led the University of Connecticut to a national championship in his second season could be the kind of hot commodity who's perfect for this challenge.
Whoever it is, D'Antoni will no doubt wish them well. He's not the fall guy anymore.
GALLERY: NBA offseason coaching carousel
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