New Lakers Head Coach Mike D’Antoni was crutching around at his first Lakers practice today. However, at the press conference this afternoon, D’Antoni said that we should not expect to see him in Friday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns. As a matter of fact, he plans to coordinate his return with Steve Nash’s.
“I was just talking to Steve, and when he feels better I feel better. He says he’s feeling pretty good. We’ll see. Probably this weekend or something… I don’t want to go too fast too soon. By this weekend I should be fine.”
D’Antoni had knee replacement surgery earlier this month and is expected to have a speedy recovery. On how much he was able to physically do at practice today, D’Antoni joked.
“I can limp around and yell. They’re going to listen to half of what I say anyway!”
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D’Antoni said that when he got the job offer from Mitch Kupchak, he was “heavily medicated.” Then, he was also quick to clarify that he was still medicated right then.
“I’m heavily medicated right now, so nothing that I say really counts.”
And he didn’t only tell the media about his lucid state. D’Antoni also joked that at practice today it was one of the first things he told his team. Then, he told them some other ‘stuff’ that they probably didn’t listen to.
“[Told them] normal BS they don’t listen to anyway.”
I’m no doctor, but I’ll definitely take D’Antoni’s word on being “heavily medicated.”