Technically, players don't really have any say over personnel, and even coaching decisions that a team might make. But there are certain players that have some sort of, let's call it influence, over the decisions that a front office would make. If you were going to put together a list of the players that had that right, it would be headlined by Kobe Bryant.
That's why it was so surprising that Kobe didn't seem to know really have any say in the Lakers hiring of Mike Brown. Well VP Jim Buss admitted in an article by Reid Cherner of USA Today that the Lakers made a mistake in not asking Bryant for his opinion, but that he feels like Brown is still a good fit for the Lakers.
"Looking back on it, we should have contacted Kobe," Buss says. "Kobe said it was management's job to pick a coach. He just said, 'Defense first.' That's what we were doing, but we should have reached out to him. . . The way Mike impressed the three of us, I would think Kobe would be impressed as well," he says. "Mike is a workaholic and Kobe is the workaholic."
We'll see how Kobe reacts once he has a chance to really get to know coach Brown, but I can't imagine that he'll be too strongly opposed before Brown has a chance to take the team through at least one season.