After the Lakers lost in blowout fashion in Phoenix on Monday, Mike D’Antoni wasn’t in the mood to placate those who might be frustrated with the team’s recent results.
L.A. has been ravaged by injuries, of course, and without so many key pieces in place -- especially at the guard spots -- there was no chance of beating a cohesive Suns squad that features one of the game’s top backcourt tandems in Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic.
After the 27-point loss, D’Antoni answered a question about what he would say to frustrated Lakers fans by responding that they “should find another team to root for.” The context was that D’Antoni really likes this group of guys, and believes they’re giving their all on a nightly basis. But if the talent’s not there, it’s not there -- so you know what you can do with that so-called frustration.
Obviously, that didn’t sit well at all with the passionate and loyal core of the Lakers fan base. A day later, D’Antoni was a bit calmer, and apologized for his offhand remark.
From Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times:“I was an idiot last night,” said D’Antoni after the Lakers walkthrough on Tuesday, in preparation for their Christmas Day game against the Miami Heat. “I was out of my mind. I was ticked off. We didn’t play well ... so I said some stuff I shouldn’t have. That’s me. I just made a mistake.”
D’Antoni tried to clarify what he meant with his comments, while acknowledging he didn’t deliver the message as intended.
“We’ve got a team that is overachieving. We have a lot of injuries and we’re in a tough state right now. We need everybody to be pulling with us. It’s going to take the whole village to get this done,” he said. “That was the meaning, I just said it wrong. It came out wrong because I was agitated. I apologize.”
It was clear the moment that D’Antoni made the remark that it was going to ignite a firestorm among Lakers fans everywhere, largely because they see him as an unsuccessful outsider to the organization whose methods haven’t come close to resulting in meeting the team’s expectations.
This year’s team has actually overachieved considering the injuries, and the players on the roster have for the most part produced in D’Antoni’s system. If the Lakers can manage to remain competitive and continue to win more than expected, all will eventually be forgiven. But the coach of a team under .500 shouldn’t be doing anything to agitate the fan base, and whether team PR tapped him on the shoulder or whether he came to the conclusion himself, issuing the full mea culpa a day later was absolutely the proper response.