After reports emerged Sunday night that Frank Vogel had already coached his final game with the Lakers, the team made the move official on Monday by announcing it had parted ways with Vogel after three seasons.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Frank both on and off the court,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “Frank is a great coach and a good man. We will forever be grateful to him for his work in guiding us to the 2019-20 NBA championship. This is an incredibly difficult decision to make, but one we feel is necessary at this point. All of us here wish Frank and his wonderful family all the best for the future.”
Los Angeles finished its season 33–49, its worst season since 2016–17, finishing one game behind the Spurs for 10th place in the Western Conference and the final spot in the play-in tournament.
Speculation had swirled for weeks that Los Angeles would make a move away from Vogel at season’s end. When asked about whether he had been informed about his future with the team following Sunday night’s regular-season finale, Vogel said, “I haven’t been told s---,” according to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha.
Vogel ends his Lakers tenure with a 127–98 record. In his first season with the team, he guided Los Angeles to a championship in the COVID-19 bubble in Orlando during the 2019–20 season. The Lakers lost to the Suns in the first round of last year’s playoffs and failed to qualify at all for the postseason in ’22.
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