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Lakers players are reportedly calling the way the organization has handled things lately ‘an embarrassment’

The Lakers! They feel just like you!

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NBA: Los Angeles Lakers-Media Day Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers have had quite the week. They saw their negotiations with Tyronn Lue to be their next head coach flame out in spectacular fashion for stupid reasons, and that was just Wednesday. They have since been revealed to be considering a who’s who of “who’s that guy”-inspiring candidates to try to force Kurt Rambis and/or Jason Kidd onto, and oh yeah, finally inspired a protest from their fanbase.

And if that has been embarrassing or frustrating for you as a fan, just imagine how the actual Lakers feel. Well, not the front office. They seem to be immune to shame so far and just call anything they don’t like “fake news.” No, I’m talking about the players.

Well, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, they feel a bit like you do:

“It’s the Lakers organization as a whole right now. You said it in your opening: It’s a laughingstock right now. Just the way everything was handled... It’s really frustrating for people who are involved with the team, and certainly for some of the players I’ve talked to. They call it an embarrassment. I’m talking about players for the Lakers. They consider an embarrassment what’s going on, and it’s not the ideal situation to be in.”

Those players are not wrong or unjustified in feeling that way! This has been embarrassing, or at least one would think.

And look. I’m not going to sit here and write that this means something for free agency, or that the organization doing its best collective Dunder Mifflin impression heading into the offseason will stop stars from coming here, because ultimately I don’t know any better than any of you do. The team still has assets and max cap space, and maybe they stick the landing after face-planting on the balance beam all month.

But if the Lakers’ players feel that way, just imagine how most others around the league probably see it. Maybe there is a star out there who is enough of a cocky contrarian to fix this — hello, Kyrie Irving — and maybe they even can, but it’s getting harder and harder to find reasons they might want to. The Lakers need to try and address this somehow, someway, or the smart money is on things getting worse before they get better.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.

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