Lakers Apparently Still Committed to Harris

The strongest statement yet that Del Harris will return to the Lakers came Monday as top team officials met and reaffirmed earlier indications that they have no plans to make a coaching change.

This comes after comments by General Manager Mitch Kupchak the day after the Lakers were swept by the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference finals, a disastrous end to a season that included 61 wins, the most since 1989-90, and the very impressive playoffs run that had come before.

Monday, Kupchak declined to discuss details of the evaluation process with owner Jerry Buss and Executive Vice President Jerry West.

“We talked about a lot of things,” he said. “It’s not unusual for us to talk at the end of the year and review the team and talk about going forward.”

It is known, however, that a coaching change would only come with the most dramatic, and unexpected, change of heart. It remains to be seen whether the Lakers will issue a public statement in the near future as a vote of confidence to take some of the heat off Harris, but privately, at least, they continue to regard him as a good coach in the face of mounting criticism and a lack of support from players.

In fact, a desire to look at the big picture is one reason team officials waited so long before holding their meeting, to allow the frustration from the sudden playoff exit, including the anger over Harris complaining about officials immediately after the Game 4 loss to the Jazz, to subside. Also, West and Kupchak spent most of last week in Chicago for a pre-draft camp.

Harris has one year left on his contract.