The Los Angeles Lakers just got done with shootaround at Verizon Center ahead of their game tonight against the Wizards.
Point guard Derek Fisher, the top player representative for the National Basketball Players Association, answered a couple questions, first as a Laker, then as a union man.
What’s your take on the Wizards, given how much they’re up and down?
“It sounds a lot like us lately so I’m not one to judge. It sounds like a lot of the teams in the league that have key players that are younger players or teams that have a lot of turnover or guys in and out of lineup due to injuries or other unfortunate situations. You’re going to see that type of inconsistency. The thing for us to realize is that because we’re the Lakers, because we’re defending champions, whatever inconsistency they’ve shown before we get here tends to kind of go away, and they galvanize and come together and play a high-spirited game. So that’s what we expect tonight.”
What is the union’s position on Gilbert Arenas?
“Overall, we’ve just tried to really be respectful to the law enforcement and public officials that have had to do their job and get to the bottom of what actually happened. We obviously feel for Gilbert and what he’s been through even though he was the one that made the poor decision. Javaris Crittenton as well. In terms of our responsibility to support those guys in the way we should, we’re going to do our best there. But overall, we understand the NBA’s position to this point, in terms of wanting to send a message across the board that there’ll be certain things in our game that just won’t be tolerated, and I think our players have to understand that and will understand it. Until the NBA actually makes a formal statement saying this is what we’re going to do related to Gilbert Arenas, there’s not much we can do so we’re kind of in a wait-and-see position as well as a lot of people.”
What is your concern over the growing length of Arenas’s currently indefinite suspension?
To this point, it hasn’t been overly concerning to us. But it’s creeping toward that area. Obviously, his sentencing is coming up in March, and that’ll be here fast, but we suspect that a decision will come much sooner than that, the indefinite part will disappear, and there’ll be more of an understanding of what the NBA is thinking, what they would like to do, and then from there, our jobs will kind of start, in terms of making sure that things are done fair, and in a way that not only tries to bring some resolution to this situation but also understanding going forward how we want to avoid this at all costs.”
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