“This is probably the craziest year I’ve been a part of, everything that could go wrong went wrong…The talent the expectations we had, we definitely had the team that was capable of winning a championship, we just didn’t have the opportunity to put it all together.”
Chris Duhon showed support for Lakers Head Coach Mike D’Antoni. Duhon stressed that his system is “simple, but complicated,” and that it “needs time and a training camp.” Duhon said he learned more this year than he has in his whole career. And, despite the struggles of this season, Dwight Howard deserves to be acknowledged as one of the best.
“He should be one of those guys who eventually gets a statue.”
Metta World Peace did not want to answer contract questions about his future with the Lakers organization. Naturally, because Peace has a player option in his contract, in which he can opt in or opt out, it was a topic of conversation. However, he only had this to say,
“Right now it’s all about coming back next year and winning…I told my agent don’t call me about it…”
Peace also opened up about getting used to Dwight Howard’s personality.
“Took me a bit to get used to his personality. His personality was just different than what everybody was used to.”
When asked to elaborate, he described Dwight as “always happy” but “in crunch-time, he’s very serious.”
Metta thought that there may have been too much pressure on Dwight. He also went as far to say that he had too much responsibility.
“I think we put a little bit too much pressure on Dwight, and as responsible leaders we gave him a little too much responsibly…Kobe, Pau, myself…we weren’t responsible enough, we should have been louder voices.”
As far as D’Antoni, his main criticism was actually that as a team they didn’t let him coach, and he said the same thing about Mike Brown.
“I don’t think we let him coach at times.”
Next Page: Steve Nash And Earl Clark
“I’m definitely going to prepare better that I ever have to make this year a distant memory and next year a phenomenal experience.”
As far as this year being the furthest away from what he thought his first year as a Laker would be, Nash said he felt like the year never got started.
“In many ways it feels like we never got started.”
When asked about Dwight Howard, Nash did not feel like Howard had too much responsibility this year, and also said he thinks Los Angeles is the place for Dwight.
“I’m very hopeful that Dwight will be back, I think this is the place for him.”
Nash left us with hopeful words for the future.
“It was an amazing experience for me to play for this the franchise for this fan base. I think that’s the one thing that burns me so much right now is that it didn’t go they way I envisioned. I really wanted to have a huge impact on the team and really make this an incredible year and experience for the fans and players and everyone involved…really hope that next year we can repay everyone for their loyalty and their enthusiasm.”
Earl Clark said although he was uncertain about his future since he is a free agent, he hopes to stay a Laker.
“I want to be a Laker. I had a lot of fun this season. I hope everything works out and I can come back, I definitely don’t want to leave here being one of the worst Laker teams in history, I don’t want to be a part of that, I want to play here. Hopefully, I’ll be back.”
Earl Clark played with Dwight Howard in Orlando, although he rarely saw the floor. Clark shed some light on the difference between the media Dwight faced in Orlando versus what he’s faced in Los Angeles, but said that Dwight has a challenge in Los Angeles and he’s going to answer it.
“I think once he came to LA, he realized that the media here is very different. I think he just felt the pressure of being in an organization where losing is not an option. I think LA is good for Dwight. There is a challenge here, and he is going to answer it.”
Next Page: Devin Ebanks, Andrew Goudelock and Robert Sacre
Andrew Goudelock showed up all smiles. He said that before getting the opportunity to play for the Lakers in the playoffs, he was planning to go to Puerto Rico to make some extra money.
“I couldn’t have pictured this goin’ any better for me.”
Goudelock also had some high words for Steve Nash. He said that before meeting him, he thought you had to have a bad boy image to be respected.
“Steve Nash is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met first off. I always thought you had to have some kind of like a bad boy image in the league to kind of gain people’s respect but to finally meet him and see what kind of guy he was like – a pure heart and does everything for the betterment of the team.”
Will Lakers fans be seeing Andrew Goudelock in purple and gold next year?
“I have a weird type of situation…We really don’t know…he (Mitch Kupchak) wants me to be here to work out and things like that but I don’t have anywhere to live out there so I don’t know how that’s going to work.”
Robert Sacre talked about what he won’t miss from his rookie season.
“Having to drop bags off in the morning on the road. That was terrible cause I could have had a good extra hour and a half to sleep.”
Sacre also talked about his infamous dance moves, which he gave credit to Phil Handy and Ronny Turiaf.
“I definitely took the moves from Ronnie but not his looks.”
Sacre finished his exit interview by telling the media that his girlfriend would be out of town so he’d be getting another tattoo this weekend. However, he would not reveal what his next tattoo would be.
Next Page: Jodie Meeks and Jordan Hill
“I think ESPN and First Take was telling us how we couldn’t make the playoffs and everybody else in the world but this team never bought into that. We always believed in one another and we believed in our coaching staff.”
It’s known that Jodie Meeks and Dwight Howard have had a close relationship. Jodie had this to say about Dwight after last night’s loss to the Spurs.
“I think the ultimate thing is losing: Nobody likes to lose because when you lose you’re easily forgotten, and nobody wants to be forgotten in this world.”
Jordan Hill started off his exit interview talking about the status of his injury. He said right now he feels “80-85 percent” and he should be 90-95 percent come training camp.
“It tightens up on me here and there but no pain.”
When Hill was in New York, he played under Mike D’Antoni, but says that D’Antoni was the “same coach” in New York that he is in LA.
“He just likes to play small ball.”
Hill touched on the frustrations of dealing with a coaching change and watching his minutes dwindle.
“It was definitely frustrating when I was playing in the beginning of the season especially doing so well and a new coach, Mike D’Antoni came…and I slowly see my minutes slowly start to drop until they was gone. What was going thru my head was what did I do wrong? I just waited for my turn to come back, and once it did I just ran with it. It does get frustrating especially from playing to not.”
Antawn Jamison was scheduled for an exit interview this afternoon but did not show up. According to the Lakers spokesman, it is unlikely he will have an exit interview. Antawn Jamison will have surgery on his right wrist tomorrow at 7am.
Pau Gasol, Darius Morris, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and Steve Blake are scheduled for exit interviews tomorrow.