Mike Brown Is A Fool For Letting Kobe Bryant Have His Way With Lakers

It's always an interesting thing to watch how the relationship between a new head coach and his superstar player evolves through the course of a season.

Especially in Los Angeles.

Lakers head coach Mike Brown doesn't exactly have a good track record of dealing with superstar players, as evident by his stint in Cleveland with LeBron James, but he now has a to deal with Kobe Bryant, and that's a different animal altogether.

If judging by how the beginning of the season has gone thus far, Bryant is going to have his way with this current Lakers team and Brown is a fool for letting him do so.

The Lakers are playing well at both ends of the floor and you don't want to mess with that mix, but eventually Brown has to show the personality and backbone of an NBA head coach.

Bryant took 28 shots in the loss to Denver, only to take 29 in the win against Houston. As great of a player as Bryant has been individually throughout his career, he has had the tendency to take too many shots at times, especially when he has talented big men to lean on.

Now there has been times when Bryant has shot the Lakers back into games, but he's also shot them out of games at times.

But Brown is fine with Bryant having the freedom to hoist it up as much as he wants.

From Hoopsworld:

“[Bryant's] got five championship rings and Bynum and Gasol have maybe one or two, so I’m going to go with the man who’s got five,” said Brown. “Whatever he does, obviously I’m going to coach him but I’ve got to get to know him and in order for me to get to know him and his game, he’s going to make mistakes and I’m going to make mistakes out on the floor.”

Brown also added:

“You guys can say I’m rolling over, say I’m deferring to him,” said Brown. “Look, Kobe’s a superstar, he’s been there, done that. You’ve got to give. He can score. You’ve got to give him more freedom than I give Darius Morris. I’ve got to give Kobe more freedom than I may give Pau Gasol. I’m going to give Kobe more freedom than Derek Fisher. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it.”

That's all fine and dandy when the Lakers are winning, but what happens when they struggle?

Would Brown have the guts to take the ball out of Bryant's hands?

The answer to that is no. It's too late. He's already given the power that a head coach has away. All it would accomplish would be to cause friction between the two.

The Lakers are a much more efficient offensive team when they take advantage of their highly-skilled big men.

Even in Andrew Bynum's 20/20 game against Houston, he didn't touch the ball nearly enough. What would his line have looked like with more frequent touches at the offensive end?

Looking more closely, Bryant's only shooting 41 percent from the floor so far this season, which would be by far the worst shooting performance of his career. Wouldn't it make much more sense as a team for the Lakers to dump it inside more?

That's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Bryant has the freedom to do what he wants on the offensive end and while he will put up good numbers, it's not necessarily what's best for the Lakers in the long run.

Sometimes superstars need to be protected from themselves.

That's where a good head coach comes into play.

It's too late for Brown to change things now without causing problems.

It will be interesting to watch how the relationship between Bryant and Brown carries out throughout the season. You can even throw Bynum and Pau Gasol into the mix as well. Problems are bound to happen eventually.

Then the finger gets pointed at Brown.

He set this in motion and will eventually look like a fool for doing so.