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Derek Fisher Looking For the One for the Thumb
There are so many things that you can say about Derek Fisher and most of them, if not all of them will be positive. Off the court, he is a great man, he conducts himself with class and I am a great admirer of him as a person. On the court, I am an admirer of his game as well. Fish is a true leader, he’s tough, he’s competitive and he has hit a bunch of clutch shots in his career. At one point in the regular season last year, I was thinking that maybe the Lakers were still one piece away from capturing the NBA Championship. I was thinking that if the Lakers did not add a better point guard to run the show, they would not win an NBA Championship. At that time, Fisher was struggling with his shot and was not really impacting the game too much for the Lakers in a positive way. Well, I wrong and Derek Fisher proved me wrong. During their NBA Title run, Fish hit a number of big shots and had some huge moments for the Lakers. Now, Derek Fisher and the Lakers are trying to repeat as NBA Champions and after losing back-to-back games a couple of weeks ago, the Champs look like they have hit their stride, winning six straight. (Editor’s note: The Lakers don’t really have a point guard or need a point guard in the triangle offense. Fisher is a point guard in size and defensive assignment only.) Derek Fisher joined Fox Sports Radioto talk about the Lakers upcoming road trip, whether or not this team has what it takes to repeat and gives his thoughts on the retirement of Allen Iverson.
On whether or not he is excited about the road trip test coming up in a couple of weeks:
“Uh, yeah. I’m anxious to just keep pushing forward and see how far we can push ourselves. I think that’s really what our challenge is going to be this year. It is really about what we want to accomplish and we’re starting to get a semblance of where we are. So it’s been fun so far.”
On whether or not this team understands what it takes to repeat as NBA Champs:
“I think we’re still in the process of understanding really how difficult it is to repeat as champions and to be not just good, but great for an entire season. It takes a special level of commitment, it takes some setback, and some adversity and a real deepening of how you look at yourself throughout the course of a season before you fully understand it. We’ll still have some stretches where we don’t look like were supposed to look on paper, but I do think everybody is still committed to the ultimate goal and if you don’t have that, you don’t have a chance and we have a great chance.”
On the retirement of Allen Iverson:
“Well, first of all, Allen Iverson is purely and simply one of the greatest players to play, period. I don’t care how tall he is. There are no asterisks around how great of a player this guy was and probably still is. It’s been a pleasure to compete against him and play against him night after night and in particular in the Finals in 2001. Great times and great moments. I wish him and his family the best in terms of the transition that he has now decided to make. I think Allen as far as what he decides to do staying in retirement or coming out of it, those are only decisions that he can make. As far as which team he best fits on, I don’t know if that ours per se. I like the team that we have now, but in this business, things change week-to-week and all it takes is an injury, a roster change or a trade to flip the whole thing around. All I know is Allen is one of the greatest competitors and one of the greatest players to ever play. Not having played with him before, I just can’t find a reason why I wouldn’t want to be on a team with him. I just wish him and his family the best and I’d rather see him go out the way he wants to than the way people think he should.”
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