About two or three nights ago I was up in the wee hours of the night, blanketed and glued to my laptop with watery eyes and snot to boot. Not because i'm having relationship troubles, but because the Lakers' exit interviews were up. Here are snippets of the interview of some of the players and a few thoughts I have from what i've heard.
Kobe Bryant
Summing up the season : “It’s been a long run, a great run but a long run. I’m sure that had something to do with it. I think the biggest thing was the fatigue factor. Guys were tired. A lot of times when you get tired, you get burdened by things that you’re normally not burdened by."
On Phil Jackson leaving the way he did: I’m very disappointed. I just had a chance to spend some time with him before coming down here, and it’s sad because of the way it ended. But still we gotta remember the good old times, last year and how that ended and the year before that even.”
On what LAL needs to do in the offseason: “Just refocus. Some guys will rest, some will train, some will get healthy. Re-focus, and come back next year with a good sense of purpose.”
Phil Jackson
On the what the Lakers can improve on: “It’s still a good team. It needs to build speed. It needs to have some speed and they get some easy baskets as a group. I think that’s the biggest key in basketball, you have to be able to find a way to score that’s not always in a set offense, not always in the half court offense.”
Lamar Odom
His thoughts during the series against Dallas: “I thought we were going to win four championships in a row. After getting there against Boston and losing, then winning two in a row, I’d be lying to tell you (otherwise). We were down 3-0, I thought we were going to come back and win that series (against Dallas). Honestly. I thought it was meant to be. I think we can get there again, and really push the league, do the same thing we’ve done before.”
Matt Barnes
Phil Jackson
On the what the Lakers can improve on: “It’s still a good team. It needs to build speed. It needs to have some speed and they get some easy baskets as a group. I think that’s the biggest key in basketball, you have to be able to find a way to score that’s not always in a set offense, not always in the half court offense.”
Lamar Odom
His thoughts during the series against Dallas: “I thought we were going to win four championships in a row. After getting there against Boston and losing, then winning two in a row, I’d be lying to tell you (otherwise). We were down 3-0, I thought we were going to come back and win that series (against Dallas). Honestly. I thought it was meant to be. I think we can get there again, and really push the league, do the same thing we’ve done before.”
Matt Barnes
His thoughts on how the season ended: “It’s a tough way to go out. For a team to win consecutive championships and it being Phil’s last year, a lot of things were at stake, and to be swept out of the playoffs was hard to swallow.”
On the aftermath: “When you bust, it’s trouble. But it’s great to be in an organization where nothing but winning is accepted, that’s a great standard to live by on and off the court. To be here and to bust, you see the repercussions.”
Pau Gasol
Reflections on how the season ended and moving forward: “The thing that makes me the angriest is me not playing at my best, & not (fully) helping my team accomplish its goals. I’m not happy, I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to perform at my usual high level, but obviously I’m not playing alone. It’s time to analyze, to sit back and see what actually happened out there, not just through this last stretch but throughout the year. I think we have to really look deep into how we started, the ups and downs, the meaning of them and what we could have done better individually and as a team to be able to get stronger at certain times when we needed to. It’s unfortunate the way we ended it up; anything short of winning the championship would have been very tough.”
Derek Fisher
On how the season ended: “My thoughts are plenty, most of them not good. I just really never imagined being in this situation, speaking to you guys under these circumstances. It definitely hurts. This one will be with us a while.”
On whether he still believes in this team: Yes. I’d take the same exact group of guys and line them up, lace them up again. We’d get the job done, that’s what I believe can and will happen. It’s no disrespect to Dallas or any of the other teams still (playing), but with the same group of guys — obviously our coach would be different — there are some things that we can do as players to be better.
On whether he's coming back next season: “There’s not a question about whether I’m coming back or not. There isn’t anything tangible that I measure my success by that tells me that today is the day I’m not supposed to be playing basketball. I’m not even close to that. Every bit of me is excited and looking forward to the future. Great things are born out of defeat, adversity and struggle.”
On what he learned from Phil Jackson: In a very, very short version, that basketball is only a metaphor for life. As bad as this hurts, and as much as we like to talk about the game and the stories and the articles and all the attention that goes to NBA basketball and the Lakers, at the end of the day this is a very, very small part of real life. That’s what I’ll take from my relationship with him more than anything, is keeping those things in perspective and being able to emotionally balance the things that come with this job, but realizing that it is a job. At the end of the day, it’s the health, safety and security of your loved ones and your friends, the people that you care about that really mean the most. The money, the contracts, the championships, it’ll eventually run out, get dusty, rusty, dry up and go away, but the memories that you have with close friends and family and teammates … those don’t ever go away.”
On how next season will be different: “The biggest void regardless of who is coaching next year, what players are back, the biggest void of all will be Phil Jackson not sitting in the high chair. It’s that simple.”
Luke Walton
On whether the Lakers can win it next season: “I know if you bring back this same team with the pain that we have right now that we haven’t felt in a few years, the hunger that we’re going to have to get back on top, we’re going to be a lot better next season than we were this season. There’s no reason to break us up. We’ve been to the Finals three years in a row before this year. Do we feel we should have been there? Absolutely. Did we underachieve this year? One-hundred percent. I think there’s no reason that whoever comes out of the West this year is going to be better than us next year with this same team. The first thing that came to me when I heard Magic (Johnson) talking about blowing up the team. They won in ’85, lost in the Western Conference in ’86, and then kicked butt again in ’87 and ’88 and won more titles. So, I don’t really see how it’s any different from that, other than we’ve been there three straight years right now. We had a bad year, we’re all upset about it, it’s a deep hole right now. Unfortunately it’s going to be a long summer of dealing with that, but I don’t see any reason why this team can’t come back next year and win another championship.
Ron Artest
On how next season will be different: “The biggest void regardless of who is coaching next year, what players are back, the biggest void of all will be Phil Jackson not sitting in the high chair. It’s that simple.”
Luke Walton
On whether the Lakers can win it next season: “I know if you bring back this same team with the pain that we have right now that we haven’t felt in a few years, the hunger that we’re going to have to get back on top, we’re going to be a lot better next season than we were this season. There’s no reason to break us up. We’ve been to the Finals three years in a row before this year. Do we feel we should have been there? Absolutely. Did we underachieve this year? One-hundred percent. I think there’s no reason that whoever comes out of the West this year is going to be better than us next year with this same team. The first thing that came to me when I heard Magic (Johnson) talking about blowing up the team. They won in ’85, lost in the Western Conference in ’86, and then kicked butt again in ’87 and ’88 and won more titles. So, I don’t really see how it’s any different from that, other than we’ve been there three straight years right now. We had a bad year, we’re all upset about it, it’s a deep hole right now. Unfortunately it’s going to be a long summer of dealing with that, but I don’t see any reason why this team can’t come back next year and win another championship.
Ron Artest
On his teammates: “I’m proud of Luke, (Bynum*) Lamar, Fisher, Kobe and Gasol. They did what not many people have done, they went to the championship three years in a row. We had six people play 82 games that probably should have sat some games. We were ready to fight, but I think our legs were gone. They played almost 400 something games the last three years. A lot of the guys that are (playing) now were home in April the last couple of years. A lot of teams that are still in it, even the veterans weren’t making it as far as the Lakers was. This year was unfortunate, but I’d be more than happy to go to battle with these guys again.”
On losing and moving forward: “As a team, when you think about what they’ve done … (and) Kobe’s done it twice, he went to the Finals three times in a row twice, and I’m sure he’ll be there again. When you think about the future, (there is) a reason to be excited, to be motivated. Dallas … everybody wanted to beat the Lakers, and sometimes teams come to L.A. and they don’t have a worry on their mind. They come into L.A. and they feel free, they have nothing to lose. We lose to teams like Cleveland and Minnesota that has nothing to lose and come in and beat us, and then when you get an actual good team that’s playing with nothing to lose? Everybody wants to beat the Lakers … it was tough. You just gotta come back stronger.”
On losing and moving forward: “As a team, when you think about what they’ve done … (and) Kobe’s done it twice, he went to the Finals three times in a row twice, and I’m sure he’ll be there again. When you think about the future, (there is) a reason to be excited, to be motivated. Dallas … everybody wanted to beat the Lakers, and sometimes teams come to L.A. and they don’t have a worry on their mind. They come into L.A. and they feel free, they have nothing to lose. We lose to teams like Cleveland and Minnesota that has nothing to lose and come in and beat us, and then when you get an actual good team that’s playing with nothing to lose? Everybody wants to beat the Lakers … it was tough. You just gotta come back stronger.”
“I think this sweep helped. It’s humbling. To move in the right direction, get that hunger back.”
From all of these what I gather is that:
Kobe is tired and old and doesn't need this anymore.
Phil is so Zen he was over the whole thing even before the season began.
Barnes is seriously rethinking if he made the correct choice signing up with the Lakers, when he remembered that the Magic never even made it past the first round.
Gasol takes out his aggression using words and not by playing well.
Odom was made for moments like this - flashing lights, microphones, and a room full of people in rabid attention.
Fisher is a quotes machine and he is determined to grow old on the court.
Walton has his reasons for not playing up to par with the rest of the team.
Ron Artest, for all the craziness inside him, actually has the best and most believable perspective on the whole thing.
And finally, (though I may have ripped them a little in this post - tough love baby), although the Lakers will be a completely different team come next season, I will definitely still be rooting for them.
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