There was zero satisfaction Sunday at STAPLES Center. A day after the Rolling Stones ran through their customary pre-arena-tour small club show at The Echoplex, the black-and-blue purple and gold mercifully kissed a miserable 2012-13 season goodbye.

In honor of this weekend’s intersection of “45 & Stinking” (Lakers) with “50 & Counting” (Stones), we’ve compiled a very special song list. This one’s a little different than the one Mick jumped through Saturday night, but for die-hard Lakers fans, it’s the only one that makes sense:

“Sad Sad Sad”
“The Worst”
“Stop Breaking Down”
“Shattered”
“Out of Tears”
“Rock and a Hard Place”
“Doom and Gloom”
“Dear Doctor”
“Biggest Mistake”
“It’s All Over Now”

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Huge scoop for ESPN LA reporter Ramona Shelburne (pictured). According to her sources, the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t even wait until the end of their first 2012-13 season homestand to see whether Mike Brown‘s Princeton offense could be salvaged. She says he was fired this morning:

After numerous discussions over the past 48 hours, Lakers management came to a unanimous decision that the team clearly wasn’t heading in the right direction and it was best to fire him now.

This speaks also to the power of a “death stare.” Even though Kobe Bryant laughed off the media’s interpretation of his Utah glare in the direction of Brown, looks like the Buss clan took it very seriously.

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ESPN.com LA Lakers blogger Brian Kamenetzky caught up via telephone last week with coach Mike Brown. He leads off the Q&A article with a most obvious question – what was Brown’s reaction when he first heard about the Dwight Howard trade?

Turns out coach got a little contorted upon being told by general manager Mitch Kupchak that against all odds, even if it turns out to be only for a year, the Lakers obtained Howard without having to give up Pau Gasol:

“I got a little excited. I tried to jump up and down, but my mind was telling me to do something that my body wouldn’t allow me to do. I almost pulled my hamstring sitting down. I don’t know if that’s ever happened to anybody, but I was so excited that my leg tensed up. I almost tore my hamstring. So I got up slowly and gave him and Jim Buss a hug.”

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Sports talk radio is all over tonight’s big Andrea Kremer interview with former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. The Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel reporter traveled to Jackson’s spectacular Montana ranch property to chat about where and how he might eventually return to the NBA.

For Lakers fans, of special interest is this bonus Web-only promo clip. She asks him what he thinks of the team’s 2011-2012 season direction under successor Mike Brown:

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Is it a good thing or a bad thing when a profile of key members of the current Lakers management team sounds more like a logline for an upcoming episode of HBO’s horse track series Luck? We’re betting the latter.

In a column today entitled “Setting the Record Straight on Chaz the Scout,” author and hoopshype.com contributor Roland Lazenby outlines how current Lakers scion-exec Jim Buss first met team scout Chaz Osborne at the track. From there, the relationship progressed to a point where Buss made the San Diego-residing Osborne one of the Lakers three current talent scouts.

But one thing Lazenby wants to make clear is that the new nickname “Chaz the Bartender” may be entirely misapplied. It arose after a CBSSports.com article last week by Ken Berger quoted a team management source as saying Chad was “a great bartender.” From the Lazenby article:

It’s time to set the record straight. Chaz Osborne is no bartender… He’s a good-natured sort (although he did not return a call about this piece) and has quipped to friends that he probably needs to go to bartending school so that he can fit his public profile.

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The quotes around the word sick in the CBSLA article headline say it all. The author is doubtful Kobe Bryant is actually sick.

Be that as it may, that’s the official reason given this afternoon for a critical absence in Orlando. The un-bylined CBS blogger speculates that this year’s NBA All-Star game top vote-getter perhaps didn’t want to deal with questions about Pau Gasol, Russell Westbrook and-or Jim Buss:

Reporters from all over the world waited for over 30 minutes until an NBA spokesperson told them he will not be coming… The players are obligated to attend the longest media session Friday, but since Kobe called in “sick” he will not be fined.

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