by Lakers Dynasty 2000 on Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:28 pm
Quotes From The Game
KOBE
Bryant has said he would opt out of his contract at the end of the season, and on Wednesday said the result of Jackson's negotiations with the team would not alter his decision to stay or go."I don't care," he said.
"I was about 90 percent, but I felt great," said Bryant, who made 4 of 7 shots from the field. "I was just waiting for things to open up for me. If they did test me, I didn't notice it. I felt fine and my stroke was there. It didn't affect me at all."
"I think Kobe probably didn't want to use his hands as much defensively," Jackson said. "They went right at him in the second half."
"I didn't feel a thing," Bryant said, assessing his finger and shoulder. "It's kind of funny, man, but I felt great."
"Being healthy for [the Lakers] is the most important, obviously," Bryant said. "And defending — not defending, but trying to get our championship back. I'm so used to saying it.
"Playing in the All-Star game is fun, especially because of the amount of votes I received. I do want to get out there and play and show the fans that I appreciate all the votes."
"It was a long week," Bryant said in his first public comments since. "But everything's past. When you're going through something, it seems like it lasts forever. But once you pass it, it's gone. I'm glad to be here right now."
PAYTON
Afterward, Bryant spoke dully of staying within the game's flow, and O'Neal snapped at the implication that Yao could handle him straight up, and Payton politely declined to answer questions at all.
"I'll see y'all after the break," he said.
Come Monday, the Lakers will get back to their usual, crazy ways, surrounded by more doubt than ever, making you wonder what could possibly happen next.
"It's a mysterious season to me, anyway," Gary Payton said. "Something else is going to come up. We're not trippin'."
The impact of Jackson's free agency could be far-reaching, affecting not only Bryant's decision, but also Payton's and Malone's. Malone, in particular, has developed a tight relationship with Jackson. "I'm just going to wait and see," Payton said. "Whatever happens, I'm going to wait until everybody does whatever they're going to do anyway. ... He's got to handle his business first."
"We're not worried about that (speculation)," Payton said. "Phil is not going to let that affect us anyway. He's going to coach, he's not going to talk about it."
PHIL JACKSON
"It was a great effort from Ming down the stretch," Jackson said.
Re-created in the image of Coach Jeff Van Gundy's beloved Eastern Conference, the Rockets have scored as many as 99 points five times in the last month and a half, and two of them have been against the Lakers."Some of that was fatigue," Jackson said, "just road fatigue."
"I think Kobe probably didn't want to use his hands as much defensively," Jackson said. "They went right at him in the second half."
While the organization presented the choice to suspend talks as mutually held, Jackson's agent, Todd Musburger, said, "I don't want to say it was my judgment. My preference would be to continue talks. But, I do acknowledge the club is having a most unusual year. Based on that, I understand why they would say they have to concentrate on that."
Jackson was measured in his comments Wednesday, before the Lakers played the last game of their seven-game trip.
"I have no hard feelings at all," he said. "I actually think it's the right move for them to make with all the free agents they have this summer."
"I think that a new contract, an extension, is somewhere between possibility and probability," Musburger said.
And, yet, the season continues, and the speculation that Jackson will leave for another organization might only increase. On Wednesday night, he grinned.
"I love to do that," he said thinly. "That's one of my favorite things. That's reality. I've done it two or three times in my career. It's OK. It's what the game's about."
Jackson tried to avoid the topic. It wasn't working.
"I don't want to talk about that right now," he said. "Let's talk about the game, OK?"
"I wasn't informed that it was going to be made a public thing today, so I'm a little surprised tonight," Jackson said. "This ending of discussion happened last weekend, but we didn't have a public comment, and the Lakers chose to make it public today, so…. "
In that same interview, Jackson insisted, "I have no intention of coaching beyond the Lakers." But he wouldn't repeat that sentiment Wednesday. "I think we'll just let that sit," he said. "I don't want to open up the subject and talk about it right now, because there's some things that just should be left alone. Certainly we have a lot to worry about, we have a lot of future ahead of us to consider, so I'll probably huddle with Mitch over this weekend, we'll hash some of these things out."
"My personal preference might be to keep going," agent Todd Musberger said. "From the Lakers' viewpoint and from Phil, the fewer distractions and the fewer items that take people off of their principal mission, the better. And if we aren't going to be able to work it out right now, we're certainly comfortable in waiting."
KUPCHAK
Having Jackson continue as the Laker coach — he won titles in his first three seasons in Los Angeles — remains the objective, Kupchak said.
"It hasn't changed," he said. "We're putting this off to the summer."
Kupchak and Musburger said the negotiating table was left without rancor, but with a realization that progress was not forthcoming.
"All I know," said one club employee, "is there's some hesitation on somebody's part."
General manager Mitch Kupchak said the club still hopes to re-sign Jackson, whose nine championships as a coach are matched only by Red Auerbach. "It hasn't changed," Kupchak said, "but once again, we're putting this off until the summer. And obviously, when Phil becomes a free agent in the summer, he's going to have options that he's going to address or may address. And we have the benefit of looking to see what happens in the next three months. "We're very happy with Phil," Kupchak added. "Personally, I work very well with him. I know he has a wonderful relationship with our owner (Jerry Buss). So right now we're very happy with the job he's done obviously in the past four years and this year, in a very trying season."
GRANT
Just another issue on a crowded list of Laker plotlines.
"As the world turns," Horace Grant sang in the locker room.
DURING MAGIC’S STATUE CEREMONY:
[On his new statue] "Man, 25 years ago, coming here to this great city, I never expected anything like this," Johnson said. "This statue represents every player that I played with. It's not about me, it's about the team and the way we played together. "I am so amazed. This is just crazy. What a day! Wow! What a day!"
"He's been more than a basketball player, he's been more than a winner. He's been a person who's left his mark on the city of Los Angeles, the NBA, all over the world," said Jerry West, a former Lakers star player, coach and executive.
"He played the game with flair, but he had more substance than he had flare," West said. "You win the game with substance."
Former teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recalled Johnson's first game with the Lakers. A last-second shot by Abdul-Jabbar off a pass from Johnson meant victory, and Johnson immediately put a bearhug on his older teammate. "All of I sudden, I thought I had become a Siamese twin," Abdul-Jabbar recalled with a smile. "I was trying to stand up straight and enjoy this victory. Magic had me in a hold. That type of enthusiasm was infectious."
Abdul-Jabbar took Johnson aside in the Lakers locker room afterward, reminding him there were 81 games left on the schedule. "That story epitomizes Magic's energy for the game," Abdul-Jabbar said.
"I've supported Magic over the years," said Bruce, who wore a jersey with Johnson's name and No. 32 on the back. "He was one of the greatest team players of all time. He's been an inspiration for what he's done on the court and in the community."
This smile, the one the sculptor deftly captured in his depiction of Johnson throwing a no-look pass, was the gotcha smile Johnson would ever so briefly flash when he realized there was a teammate at the end of an open passing lane.
"How can I help you?" Johnson said he recalls thinking to himself at those moments. "James, here's the ball. Kareem, here I come."
"I was like everyone else," Riley said. "He had something that was life threatening, career ending, reputation damaging and, emotionally, I didn't see him bouncing back from it.
"But that is part of what makes him an amazing, amazing person. He got up, jumped into the fight and began helping other people. He realized he wanted to save himself and that he really wanted to save others. That's the way he was as a player.
"Magic didn't believe he could win championships by himself, but he did believe he could win them if he helped make everyone around him better. He did that with me, with my coaching. He took everybody to another level."
"For years, black athletes have been criticized for their one-dimensionality," said Todd Boyd, a USC cinema professor who wrote "Young, Black, Rich & Famous, the Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion and the Transformation of American Culture."
"They have been criticized for being just athletes. The image of them is of making poor choices with their money. But Magic, and also Michael Jordan, have proven to be successful entrepreneurs, very shrewd."
"[Magic] is equally popular here in the streets and in the boardrooms of corporate America," Boyd said.
Asked if he believes Johnson could succeed in a third arena, politics, Boyd said, "If Arnold can be governor, why couldn't Magic be mayor?"
"I can't tell you how exciting it was to be on the end of some of those passes," Worthy said.
"We didn't have a shot at winning consistently until [Magic] got with the team," Abdul-Jabbar said
Former teammate Jamaal Wilkes recalled this week that several players grumbled privately about Westhead but knew that their future as Lakers, perhaps even their careers, would be jeopardized if they complained publicly.
"I don't think even Kareem would have survived," Wilkes said. "Magic was the only one who could do it because of his relationship with Dr. Buss."
It was highly unusual for a black player to challenge a white coach.
"We looked at it largely as a basketball issue, the players being unsatisfied with the coach, but you had to be aware of the racial connotation," Wilkes said.
"I never saw him run and hide from anything, whether it was a problem on the court or HIV or a business challenge," Riley said.
"I wouldn't say I had a Magic problem," Westhead said. "He was going through a tough time and the team was going through a tough time and everything came up [bad] for me. But Magic and I had always gotten along very well."
"I certainly appreciate everything Magic has accomplished," Westhead said. "He helped me get a ring. It's the only one I ever got."
ROCKETS
"I was very surprised how I was able to do," Yao said. "We kept moving the ball and moving our people on defense and Shaq couldn't catch up to it. We have to face a lot of Western Conference teams and this will be a big boost to our confidence."
"We played as a team and everybody played together with great chemistry and they couldn't get hold of what we were trying to do," Yao said.
"We have to make adjustments throughout the game if you're playing against the best player in the league, and he did that," Van Gundy said. "He went with his jump hook and he drove and he spun."
"We envisioned we could play like this," forward Maurice Taylor said. "We thought we could get this type of intensity and this level of play against the best teams in the league. It felt good to see everybody and everything come together, scoring, defense, low turnovers. When we put a complete game together, we feel like we could play with anybody in the league."
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Credit: Arnie @ LG.net
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