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vanexelent
Retired Number
Joined: 17 May 2005
Posts: 30081
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 Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:55 am Post subject: Phil Calls For Immediate Help? |
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"The reality is we don't want to see a player like Kobe Bryant lose the most productive years of his career to futility," he said. "We want to have success. He's keeping people entertained and he's maybe the most entertaining player of the year. He keeps the Lakers in the forefront of conversation and is a big attraction on the road. But the real attraction is about winning."
whole story LA Times...
| Quote: | Jackson May Be Staring at Brand New Territory
By Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer
The Lakers reconvene today, 30 games from either the playoffs or the lottery, guided by a coach who has swept confetti from his hair, popped open champagne in effervescent locker rooms and never, not once, missed the playoffs in 14 previous NBA seasons.
Phil Jackson and the Lakers sit at 26-26 as the Laker landscape, harvested with a three-peat and parades during Jackson's previous tour, is now dotted with catchphrases of chance and hope.
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Jackson has made a point of sprinkling in playoff jargon throughout the season, saying as recently as four weeks ago that he hoped to be a spoiler team once the playoffs began, but the postseason is hardly a shoo-in for a team that lost seven of 10 heading into the All-Star break.
Eighteen of their last 30 games are at home, a plus in the eyes of Laker followers, although the opponents aren't pushovers, with Detroit, Phoenix and San Antonio (twice) coming to Staples Center. If the Lakers can't win a majority of their home games and continue to stumble on the road, then they won't make the …
"We just don't abide the thought," Jackson said Sunday in an interview with The Times. "My mother would say, 'Perish the thought, don't even think about it.' If it happens, it happens. And if it happens, we'll spin the dial and say, 'Hey, we're lucky, we're going to get in the lottery,' and we'll try to make some chicken salad out of it all.' "
Then Jackson leans closer.
"The reality is we don't want to see a player like Kobe Bryant lose the most productive years of his career to futility," he said. "We want to have success. He's keeping people entertained and he's maybe the most entertaining player of the year. He keeps the Lakers in the forefront of conversation and is a big attraction on the road. But the real attraction is about winning."
Jackson, 60, returned to the Lakers last June, $30 million richer, inheriting a team that had gone 34-48 and tumbled to an 11th-place tie in the Western Conference amid infighting and finger-pointing.
Hailed as a savior by many Laker fans, he signed a three-year contract and called the unification "a tremendous story … of reconciliation, redemption, of reuniting."
By all accounts, Jackson is enjoying himself, even if his career winning percentage has fallen from .725 to .715. He stopped short Sunday of saying he would fulfill all three years of the contract, but emphatically signed on for next season.
"I told Dr. [Jerry] Buss that I was going to do a year at a time," he said. "Right now, I would say I have absolutely no doubts about coming back to coach another year. Absolutely confident. I've got the energy and the desire and the players.
"A lot of people talk to me that are coaches and pundits, saying, 'Oh this team's overachieving.' I ask the players how they feel and they say they're underachieving. That's a good sign to me."
Overachieving or underachieving, there still comes stress, fatigue, uncooperative referees, bad food on the road, sleepless nights in unfamiliar hotel beds, all exacerbated by the toll that 12 seasons as an NBA player takes on the body.
Jackson feels chronic pain in his back and hips, and has gout in some of his toes. He often takes anti-inflammatories and sits on a specially designed cushion on the Laker bench that props him up an extra six or seven inches.
During practices, he sits on giant rubber workout balls, the better to rest an aching back. He also has access to a Segway if he wants it, although the electronic scooter tends to sit undisturbed on the side of the court at the Laker practice facility.
The start of the season was "real tough," acknowledged Jackson, who can often be seen working out after practice with Laker athletic performance coordinator Alex McKechnie.
"It's like getting back on the bicycle and riding, but you don't know how stiff you're going to be after you start riding," he said. "It was physically difficult. Sometimes I can be in a little bit of discomfort. I work through that."
There is also mental strain in Jackson's life, even though expectations have been categorically lowered and there is no longer the weekly, if not daily, war of wills between Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
"There's certainly stress," said Jackson, who polished off a stack of buttermilk pancakes topped with marinated berries during the interview. "This All-Star break, I find myself catching up on sleep, sleeping until 8 in the morning, getting eight hours of sleep a night. I never get more than six hours, five hours. Simple rest and relaxation basically — massage, facial, all the things you have to do to stay healthy. You have to know there's stress in this business. The adrenal glands are going to suffer from it."
An eternity ago, the Lakers rolled to a 15-1 record in the 2001 playoffs and, a year later, became only the second franchise since 1966 to win three consecutive titles. This season, despite the presence of one of the league's best closers, they have lost seven games in which they were leading or tied in the final minute of the fourth quarter, fumbles that could be haunting for months if they fail to play beyond April 19.
Jackson parks a lot of the team's future on Bryant, bringing up two vastly different games in recent weeks — a disintegrating 114-110 home loss to Atlanta last Wednesday and a much-needed 89-78 road victory Feb. 8 over Houston.
"A lot of it revolves around Kobe's mind-set for a game," he said. "Sometimes when he takes off, like he did against Atlanta, all of a sudden he's shooting the ball, everybody else kind of just stops. Their performance level is like, 'He's just going to do his thing, we could just ride on his coattails.' We can't do that.
"When he does things like the Houston game, where he makes a marked decision, like 'OK, they're coming after me, I know when the double teams are coming for me, I'm going to get the rest of the guys shooting the ball,' everybody seems to want to step into that vacuum."
By the same token, Jackson acknowledges the importance of Bryant's one-on-one skills in an everybody-share offense that isn't accustomed to being stretched the way it is by one player. Bryant is averaging a league-high 35 points and Lamar Odom is averaging 13.9 points, by far the largest margin in the league between a team's top two scorers.
"I don't think I've ever felt really comfortable with the individualization of a team's game," Jackson said. "But I think Kobe's doing more in the context of what has to happen in his own desire to either make a point — his own self-aggrandizement or his own whatever — he's doing it inside the framework of trying to lead this team toward winning. I see that as extremely positive.
"I think it's really beneficial for this club because I think all the things that boiled down to last year — of Kobe being a scapegoat, being an individualized player, all those things were unfair. Part of the reason I came back was, obviously, I believe he could be the difference between an average team that's rebuilding and a team that has good chances and hopes." |
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wolfpaclaker
Retired Number
Joined: 29 May 2002
Posts: 58344
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:06 am Post subject: |
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Hopefully a trade will happen.
The problem is with trades that I have heard they meet with one of the following.
1- Overpaid player
2- Player coming of injury or with an injury
Which makes me think if push comes to shove, the Lakers won't trade for those sort of players.
Kobe's prime isn't going to be optimized in 30 odd games. The goal should be have something in effect for next season where they can do something special.
If they can do that with a trade - They will do it. If not, I see them standing pat ..... |
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bounty
Star Player
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 3946
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:07 am Post subject: |
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| Another PJ shot at Kup. Love it. |
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dcarter4kobe
Franchise Player
Joined: 30 Jul 2005
Posts: 17680
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:22 am Post subject: |
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| He should have said this in the summer,but now maybe we will make a solid trade for a big man |
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