Kwame's Final Conference
As promised, more exit interviews from the Lakers. Today, Kwame Brown.
BK
What was the gist of your meeting?
"Just to stay at it. I've got to keep at it. They're very curious about where I was going to be in the summer. They want me to be here to complete my rehab on my right foot. My left leg is so much stronger than my right. When I'm running and stuff it's just so off balance I can't really sprint. So try to get everything down to where I'm moving quick instead of having to work at running and work at doing things, just doing them instinctively."
Mitch had mentioned they were very interested in your summer activities, making sure you were working out, etc. Were you planning on doing that anyway?
"Yeah. The only thing we're going to do differently, they want me to take a vacation earlier than I had planned. I was going to be here for three or four weeks, and coming in and shooting and stuff like that, but they want me to leave now so I can be back earlier."
Have you ever been told to go on vacation before?
"No. But I owe it to myself and to them, because I don't want to have an incomplete rehab lingering on to next year."
What do you need to improve heading into next season?
"I need to improve just slowing down, and just being there the whole season. I think I can't have any more letdowns to where at the start of the season I'm not ready. Chris is going to be back and I (have to) find a way to coexist with him and make the most of my minutes at whatever position."
What went well?
"I was happy that I didn't have a letdown at the center spot when Chris went out. He did a great job all year. He carried us at the center spot most of the whole year until he got hurt. I know a lot of people thought it was going to be, "Oh my god, Chris is gone, it's over!" But I stepped up pretty good, and played hard. I've just got to refocus. I've got to play better defense. I can do a lot more on the defensive end. Because I think I can guard a lot of people. Smaller guys, and be more active. Once I get myself back into great shape and get my legs right, I think I can guard one through five."
What happens with you and Chris next year?
"I don't know. I'm going to get in and work on my jump shot, and come in expecting to play the four. If they make changes, then I'll be ready for that, too."
Did they talk about that?
"No, they didn't talk about that. They just talked about being in the gym. I've definitely got to work on my free throws. This was the worst free throw shooting that I've ever done. So work on that, work on my outside shots. I've just got to be prepared. Basically be prepared for whatever. I can't have it in my mind that I'm going to play center and then play forward. Like last year, I had my mind on playing center and ended up playing forward."
You didn't take to it as much as center.
"In the triangle, you've got to be able to shoot a jump shot. So that's the main goal. Shoot jumpers, and get in there and get the jump hook, and shoot free throws."
You're still a young player, but you've got a lot of experience. At what point do you feel like that "excuse" goes away?
"That doesn't work anymore. I think it was over this year. I'm not young anymore. I'm 24. Next year, definitely, I've got to come in healthy. Because this is that curve where you either make or break. It's either make or break and I have to come in healthy."
Do you have any feel for your off the court situation?
"No. I talked to the attorney. He just told me they're going to get with the D.A. That's all they told me. That they'd let me know by the end of the day (this was Monday). They just told me to wait and hang around and be patient."
Are you surprised it's taking this long?
"I've never heard of it. To be accused of something and nothing happens. I don't know. But I'm confident that I didn't do anything wrong. That's basically all I can say about it from a legal standpoint. But it's bizarre to me.
So you haven't had to meet with the police?
"No."
Is it too early for you to start setting goals for next season, statistically?
"Well, I thought so, but they made me write it down and put it in my pocket. They want me to focus on 15 and 10. So I guess I've got it in my pocket and so I'll look at it every day. You just look at that some of the games I had, and some of the games that I didn't get to play a lot of minutes, then when Chris was out I had those numbers, or pretty close. So it's like, there's no reason why you can't get it if you're healthy, you come in, you know the offense, and you're in shape. So I just do what they asked."
Do you feel confident you'll get your minutes, either at the five or four?
"Well, I feel confident that I'm going to get minutes, but I just have to get the confidence in the jump shot and everything so I can have the numbers whether Chris is out there or not. I don't want it to be a situation where they don't feel like they can play both of us together, because we could be- we'd be great together with two seven footers on the court. So I just definitely got to get to where I can make a shot and not be a liability at any position."
Which is going to be harder, the 15 or the 10?
"The rebounds. Because of Lamar, he's such a good rebounder. We call him "Thief." He takes rebounds from everybody. That's going to be hard. Lamar is a great rebounder."
What do you think caused the struggles at the four?
"I just think that I wasn't ready, I didn't trust in my ability at the four spot. It was me, it wasn't the coaching staff. I played on the wing in Washington and had some success doing it. I feel more comfortable at the basket, but I still got to get the confidence to do it out on the wing, and hit those shots and be ready to go."
Rocky,
I believe Kwame will always be in the 5 spot on the defensive end. I think his desire to get his jump shot thing going is so that Mihm can play the 5 spot on the offensive end alone. If Kwame doesn't get the jump shot down I think the Lakers are going to go with Kwame at the 5 spot all the way around, at least, for next year. PJ asking Mihm about playing "the wing" is an indication that it's for the offensive end purposes alone.
mike
Posted by: Michael Teniente | May 12, 2006 at 07:55 PM
practice kwam, practice with kobe
hope kobes work ethic rubs off to the other lakers
GO LAKERS!
Posted by: dxter | May 12, 2006 at 08:01 PM
I've read a couple people say that Kwame is working with Kareem, but when BK interviewed the Cap, he said the Kwam didn't work with him because he considered himself more of a face up player as opposed to a back to the basket player. Which is it? Personally, if you're a basketball player and don't take the opportunity to be schooled by the greatest scorer and proven winner on every level the game has seen, you're a moron. Maybe he changed his mind on that?
The Kwam always looked as if he was looking for permission to make a move. He looks hurried and uncertain a lot of the time. Hopefully next year he'll be confident enough to just play. Other than Howard and Yao, there aren't any big men around Kwame's age that dominate. Amare may not come back from the surgery as the same player and he's not as big as those 3. I'm not putting the Kwam in that class but I am saying that you could make a case for him being not bad in comparison to what other teams have to suffer through with.
He's got a great NBA physique and he's a load on the block that even Shaquille had trouble moving. Still, I never understood his game. Don't know what his "go to" move is. Don't know why he doesn't block more shots. Don't know why he doesn't get all the rebounds; that's just effort and determination. Don't know why he can't catch; I've got smaller hands than him and don't ever remember dropping a pass.
You can work on your shot but changing the way you think is tough but doable. Turning into a confident, driven competitor is what the Kwam needs to work on. Meditate, cogitate, commiserate but git her done.
We got championships to win.
Phil called MJ and they both decided thumbs up on the trade for the Kwam. I bow to their expertise but I'm still waiting for the flower to bloom as are we all.
Posted by: Vman | May 12, 2006 at 09:17 PM
BK,
Oh well a girl can only wish. I thought you could find it somewhere with your connections and all,haha, but what can you do? Still I enjoyed these conferences, thank you for taking the time to post them.
Posted by: lakofan | May 12, 2006 at 10:36 PM
Mike-
I don't think they're planning on putting Mihm out on the wing, and certainly not defensively. But yeah, on offense, they might encourage sets where Mihm is nominally the five but plays further away from the basket, but on D, there's no way they think he can guard 4s. If they're out on the floor at the same time, Mihm won't be on the opposing team's PF. That's the impression I got.
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | May 12, 2006 at 11:40 PM
Will Mihm even be back BK?
Posted by: LakeMan | May 13, 2006 at 12:27 AM
when KOBE came into the league and everyone started saying he was the next MJ people took offense to that....and since then people have always tried to find ways to rip his game or his personality to prove that he is not close to MJ...I think that KOBE is getting so close to MJ that people are just looking for reasons to talk bad about him.... "
Wow.
You're rewriting history quite a bit there.
First of all, when Kobe came into the league, you didn't have "everybody saying he was the next MJ". Not even close. If everyone thought he was the next MJ, why did he get drafted where he did? Why was Charlotte willing to trade him away? What did he do his first season to even remotely look like Jordan?
Just take a look at Kobe's career trajectory and compare it to Jordan's career trajectory. They're a little different, because Jordan had to carry a team while Kobe got carried through by a dominant player for a while. But even then, it's easy to see that Kobe hasn't even come close to doing what Jordan did.
So why do people hate Kobe so much? I'll give you some of the reasons. Now, you may not think these are legitimate reasons, but they are really are the reasons why people don't like him, whether you agree or not.
1) Before he was even drafted, he was generally a jerk to several teams and let it be known that he didn't want to play in several places. He refused to even work out for Charlotte.
2) He came off as cocky both on and off the court. Part of this was the "I'm a better baller than you" kind of cockiness, but there was a taste of the sophisticated "I'm a better person than you" cockiness as well.
3) He seemed to hog the ball in inappropriate situations early in his career, such as the air-balls episode against Detroit and the taking-on-Jordan episode in the all-star game.
4) After the Lakers won their first championship with the offense clearly running through Shaq, Kobe seemed to try to take control and wanted to get declared the top man. He started taking more shots than Shaq despite shooting the ball 10-15% points worse, hitting his lowest point in the 02-03 season when he got 23.5 spg and Shaq only had 18, and the Lakers failed to make the finals.
5) His "I'm better than you" sophisticated image got rocked when everyone found out that he was cheating on his wife with multiple women over long stretches of time and had possibly raped someone. Not only were the accusations horrible by their own merit, they made him look fake in many people's eyes in light of the image he had conveyed. On top of that, his initial statement to the accusations was something to the effect of "you all know what kind of person I am", which made him look even faker when the truth came out. And then he just threw Shaq under the bus with the "I'm not the one paying women" comment, which was so ridiculously unnecessary it was embarassing.
6) He didn't respect his teammates. He publically insulted Shaq several times, even calling him fat, he punched Samaki, and he drove Malone off the team.
7) He had the Sacramento game where he didn't shoot in the first half, to make some sort of point about the complaints that he took too many shots. I think this was the last straw for some people - under no conditions do you tank a game to prove a point.
8) He manipulated several teams in order to become the lone superstar on the Lakers. He used the Clippers as leverage (by some accounts, lying to them about his intentions to join the team), and managed to get Shaq shipped off for less than he was worth and force Jackson to leave, thereby dumping the Lakers from a title contender to straight out of the playoffs.
9) Phil Jackson, his coach during every successful season he's ever had, described him as uncoachable.
10) The Lakers absolutely sucked in the first season with him as the only go-to guy.
11) During his second season with the Lakers, he started jacking up more shots than anyone in the NBA had in close to 20 years (that's only by my recollection, but I can't think of any who put up that many shots a game since baby jordan).
12) At the end of the series where he was finally showing that he could play team ball and compete against the best, he responds to adversity by giving up in game 7, (no matter what you say, three jump shots, with 1 point and 1 assist, and no defense whatsoever, is giving up), thereby recalling the Sacramento game that cemented his immaturity several seasons ago.
Hopefully I have just written the definitive Kobe-hater post. It has nothing to do with how good he is (except that no one would have cared as much if he wasn't good), and it has nothing to do with the media (except that many of them agree with the public). Now you can't claim that you don't know why people dislike him anymore.
Posted by: pangit | May 13, 2006 at 12:58 AM
LakeMan-
Good question. Like I posted before, I'd move him for guard help, and I think there's a good chance that will happen. Mihm is one of the few guys they have with value. So yeah, he could be gone and render this whole Kwame/Mihm thing moot.
But until it happens, we'll work under the assumption that he'll be back.
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | May 13, 2006 at 02:05 AM
Pangit
You are offically the most stupid poster and are offically 'Ignored'
Please go to the Cavs or Sun or Heat posts and spread the word of "TJ Simmers" and leave us here to worry about that useless player Kobe. We need to repent and when we are ready on day we could join society as offical Kobe Hater
All praise saint 'Pangit' for showing us the light brother!!
Amen!
Laker_Uk
Posted by: Laker_Uk | May 13, 2006 at 03:48 AM
More great stuff, guys.
Seriously, if it wasn't for you guys I might turn to another paper's sports section.
Kwame seems to have the right goals and it committed to them. That's all we can ask.
GO KWAME!
GO LAKERS!
Posted by: Jon Kavulic | May 13, 2006 at 06:08 AM
I hate the Suns.
Posted by: Jon Kavulic | May 13, 2006 at 06:09 AM
BK/AK,
Any feel on who on the Lakers will be on the summer league team?
Posted by: troy | May 13, 2006 at 06:45 AM
People have this warped memory of Michael Jordan.. This guy was one of the most immature and selfish players the league has ever seen. He has pouted in games just as Shaq has pouted when he thought he didn't get the ball enough and would stop rebounding, playing defense. Remember the "guard the yard" stuff? People act as if Kobe is the devil and ignore these other players' acts. I don't think he pouted in Game 7, but that Sacramento game, Kobe did respond immmaturely to all the criticisms from the previous game.
Jordan changed his "image" when he and his team started winning. Winning is the only thing that's going to help Kobe, nothing else. He needs to continue to become a better leader on the floor and the lakers organization needs to have a sense of urgency that they do not seem to have right now to build this team. Their attitude seems to be to sit on their hands for the next couple years and assume they will hit the jackpot in 2008. They might want to think about Kobe wearing down because of having to carry that load, playing so many minutes till then. Our bench is weak.
Posted by: Lakerfan | May 13, 2006 at 09:41 AM
By the way, here is Sam Smith of Chicago Tribune commenting about this whole Game 7 drama and comparisons to Jordan:
[Sam Smith]:
This is what I think happened and it is Jordanesque. I don't buy that sabotage thing. Bryant had 23 by halftime and was on the way to 50 and the Lakers were in trouble, down 15 and going nowhere. So knowing Phil Jackson, he told Bryant the first four games they went inside and distributed the scoring and got up 3-1, that was their only chance. Kobe has been buying in and did so early in the series. So he does in Game 7 and the plan doesn't work and they're down 30 and can't guard the mop kids. It's over, so Kobe packs it in. If he shoots crazy now they lose and he's blamed for being selfish. So he shuts it down. Jordan did something similar in the 1989 conference finals against the Pistons. The Bulls were losing and the Pistons were double and triple-teaming Jordan, so Doug Collins told Jordan to move the ball and not shoot so much. OK, you think those guys can win! Jordan took eight shots in 46 minutes. Michael Jordan could get eight shots off on anyone getting off the bus. The Bulls couldn't recover and Jordan just stopped shooting. It was Game 5 of a six-game series loss. But Kobe is a villain and lightning rod too so much of the blame goes to him. I don't think he was deserving of so much criticism.
LINK: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/askthewriter/cs-060510asksamsmith,1,3324192.story?coll=cs-bulls-headlines
Posted by: Lakerfan | May 13, 2006 at 09:42 AM
BK/AK,
What's also going on with the Lakers picks in the draft?
I forget. Do we have Miami's pick or something?
Posted by: Jon Kavulic | May 13, 2006 at 09:51 AM
Jon,
That would be correct. 26th pick.
AK
Posted by: Andrew Kamenetzky | May 13, 2006 at 10:04 AM
In the ideal world, you'd like to have your 7-footers do what Nowitzski does - be a presence on the block AND be able to step back and hit 20 to 24-foot jump shoot. But, unfortunately, that is European style of basketball and I do not think Kwame at 24 could transform himself so completely over the course of one or two summers.
Nevertheless, Kwame can and should learn to CONSISTENTLY hit a jump shot at 10 to 15 feet. He also needs to improve on the foot work in the post. If he can improve a little in each of those areas over the course of next two seasons, he would be a very solid player. He would also haver versatility to play either the center or the power forward position. Given Mihm's particular skills and Bynum's development, I would expect most of Kwame's minutes would come at the 4. He could play some at center, at times, but he would be a monster as a power forward.
As to defense, the best one could hope for is that Kwame continues to improve on moving his feet (he got better at it towards the end of the season) and improves his timing on block shots. Again, given his size and athletic skills, even an incremental improvement should produce some tangible results.
Posted by: Gene | May 13, 2006 at 10:17 AM
I completely agree that Sheed is a great player. I completely agree that he is underrated. I completely agree that he has a monster all-around game. But in his last couple years with Portland and his 2.5 years with Detroit, he's diminished his effectiveness by spending too much time on the perimeter. He pulls down 3-4 fewer rebounds a game than he could, and he scores less in the paint than he could. Duncan called his turnaround jumper "unguardable", so why does he need to open things up with the three-ball? If he stayed inside he could easily be a 20-10 man and be drawing more double-teams to open up Detroit's perimeter players. Plus, fewer missed threes (he missed almost 300 of them this year) leads to fewer fast breaks for the other team.
Posted by: Jon | May 13, 2006 at 01:20 PM
Thankx BK/AK
Bigchil
right on. I am one of those under 6', hot air, and never play in the NBA. Yet I think I do know something about basketball.
Have you ever been to the moon? but you do know something about it. do you? ;)
peace.
Posted by: Socrates | May 13, 2006 at 05:19 PM
I don't think kwame should be worried about developing an outside shot. What we liked about him in the playoff series was his presence in the post. He already does a nice job of getting good position in the post, what he needs to become better at is finishing in the post.
Also think lamar is actually very good at bringing the ball up and posting his man up. Add Mihm to the equation, kobe/smush driving being a positive thing and the paint is looking cluttered. For that reason I don't think we need Mihm/Kwame to play extended minutes on the court together. Lamar in addition to his ball handling skills should look to be in the post more simply because his good at it. Kwame hinted at lamar being a great rebounder, another quality that says the post suits lamar. So I think we should look to see Lamar and Kwame on the court togehter doing damage in the post, Lamar and Chris doing damage at the post, plus Chris has the 12-15 feet range so he can step outside.
Posted by: Taliq | May 13, 2006 at 06:00 PM
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but shouldn't Kwame at least develop an inside shot before there's any talk of him stroking it from behind the arc? I think people are getting a little ahead of themselves.
AK
Posted by: Andrew Kamenetzky | May 13, 2006 at 06:07 PM
AK,
Yes, it would be nice if he would develop a layup and a dunk shot. Then he can start on a 5-8 foot hook shot. Then a 10 foot jump shot. But first things first!!
Posted by: exhelodrvr | May 13, 2006 at 09:04 PM
great interview. with phil was a good too.
about kwame. i believe in this guy. hi will be very good player.15-10? very possible.
it's really beutifull think to be a lakers fan now:) we got young team, great coach and kobe. believe me. 2-3 years, 2 better role players more expierience and we will be the champs again.
greetings from poland!!!!
rafiq
Posted by: rafiq | May 15, 2006 at 07:59 AM
Someone PLEASE tell Smush to work on his outside jumpers! Lakers need consistency on their outside game!
Posted by: richErd | May 18, 2006 at 11:08 PM