Jeanie Buss felt batrayed that Lakers hired Mike D’Antoni over Phil Jackson

In Jeanie Buss’ book, “Laker Girl” she talks about the situation leading to Mike Brown being fired and how the Lakers handled hiring their next coach. The story has a lot of quotes but we’ll get to the one that was mentioned in the title. To summarize what was said before, Jim Buss approached Jeanie and asked her if Jackson would be interested in coming back. She said she wasn’t so sure. Next thing ya know, Jim and Phil are talking and, as Jeanie described it, Phil seemed like he was seriously considering coming back. Also, it was understood that Jackson would be a better fit for Dwight Howard.

Then, Phil got a call saying that Jim was going with D’Antoni. End of story, right? Well, here’s the main event:

"Two days after Phil got that phone call, I was at the gym when I started crying so hysterically that they sent me home.My sister, Janie, knew the whole situation was tearing me apart, but I don’t think anybody else in my family understood how much it had hurt me. It physically hurt me.The sequence of events — Phil almost coming back and then being told someone else was better for the job — practically destroyed me. It almost took away my passion for this job and this game. It felt like I had been stabbed in the back. It was a betrayal. I was devastated.I felt that I got played. Why did they have to do that? Why did Jim pull Phil back into the mix if he wasn’t sincere about it? …Phil wasn’t looking for the job, and then he wasted 36 hours of his life preparing for it when they were never in a million years going to hire him anyway.How do you do that to your sister? How do you do that to Phil Jackson?"

Yikes. Okay well she also described Jackson as not as upset and barely emotional about it. Read the whole thing here.