Derek Fisher
Derek Fisher
Derek Lamar Fisheris an American basketball coach and former player. He most recently served as the head coach of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. He played professionally in the NBA for 18 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he won five NBA championships. He has also served as president of the National Basketball Players Association...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth9 August 1974
CityLittle Rock, AR
CountryUnited States of America
You see arguably our best player going out there to do everything he can possibly do to win a game even though his ankle is probably still a little bit sore. I hope that it does make the rest of us feel like we have to do something to help.
As a veteran player, you hate to be out there in that situation, but tonight was about the other 29 games.
Coach Popovich is a very intelligent coach. He must have felt that his team needed to get some emotion while playing the game.
I think we're finding this team can win basketball games, even when we don't score 100 points.
I think it's that we got a chance to practice a few days, give ourselves a chance to focus on how we want to get our shots and where we want them to come from. I think we're doing a better job of slowing down offensively when we don't have anything initially in transition and calling our sets and getting to the spots we want to get to. At least for the most part we're not forcing Baron or Jason or somebody to make a play against the shot clock every time.
I was just trying to do whatever I needed to help us win. That was the objective. Today we needed extra offense and at times, I provided that. Just not enough to get a win.
We may have gotten a little bit tired. They played great defense, and I think when you're playing a team like T.C., your margin for error is very small.
For most guys, those are difficult shots. But he has the ability to make those kind of plays. The best you can do is make it difficult for him.
I allowed my teammates to do what they do. The key to our success tonight was balance and the fact that everyone was able to get comfortable on offense.
In the first half, we didn't give them a lot to get excited about other than the explosions in the introductions.
I definitely believed that we could get that stop down the stretch. It wasn't that they didn't have enough time to get the shot off, but I felt like we kept fighting and we were going to be able to get that last stop and take it to overtime and pull it out.
He's in a position now where he gets to make those plays every night and every time. He's just showing the ability he's always had. He's just doing it on a nightly basis.
In the past it's come up maybe in the middle of the year, after we'd lost some games, or been frustrated. The fact that we haven't played a regular-season game yet makes it different.
For most fans of the league, they'll find it admirable. He didn't go in to start anything. He didn't go in to make any trouble. He went in to make sure his wife was OK.