\u201cAfter a few workouts, he told me he wanted to mentor me and work for the Lakers. After that, he had a meeting with Magic, and I don\u2019t know what happened there, but he never got a job with the Lakers. He wanted some kind of role with the team just to work with me and the big guys, but unfortunately that never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six-time MVP was later shut out from additional coaching opportunities. He was passed over as a head coach candidate by UCLA and the Milwaukee Bucks, both previous playing destinations.<\/p>\n
Ivica Zubac\u2019s Progress<\/p>\n
In 2019, the Lakers traded Zubac to the Los Angeles Clippers. Despite limited playing time with his former team, he quickly developed into a key contributor for the Clippers.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2251486435.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The seven-foot center had a further breakthrough during the 2024-25 season. He averaged a career-high 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds over 80 games, earning All-Defensive Second Team honors.<\/p>\n
This month, Zubac and Kobe Brown were traded to the Indiana Pacers for Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks, and a second-round pick. The 28-year-old has yet to make his Pacers debut due to an ankle injury and paternity leave.<\/p>\n
With a 15\u201340 record, the Pacers are near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. While Indiana is headed toward the draft lottery, Zubac will have an opportunity to establish himself as one of the league\u2019s top centers.<\/p>\n
For all the latest\u00a0NBA\u00a0<\/a>news and rumors, head over to\u00a0Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an important figure in Los Angeles Lakers history, winning five NBA championships as a player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,532,4034,1698,300,4044,251,135,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-601832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ivica-zubac","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangeleslakers","19":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116066216607028482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}