“It wasn’t an airing out session,” Brown said Saturday, downplaying its significance. “It was a film session.”
The session was mostly X’s and O’s based and run by Brown until he handed over the floor to his assistant coaches.
“I utilized my assistants a lot because I don’t like the players hearing my voice a lot,” Brown said. “I talked a lot. I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to have someone else talk.’ After two losses like that everybody’s feeling kind of down. So, I wanted to hear other guys’ voices.”
Players were invited to speak after Lakers assistant coaches John Kuester and Chuck Person left strong impressions. Part of the assistant coaches’ message was urging the players to curtail any “external chatter,” according to a source.
via Source -- Los Angeles Lakers told to curtail ‘external chatter’ - ESPN Los Angeles.
That’s pretty much code for “Hey, Pau, quit talking about how upset you are at being involved in trade talks,” and “Hey, Kobe, quit talking about how upset Pau is about being involved in trade talks.”
It’s a clear attempt to try and restore some semblance of order to a team which has seemed out of control as of late. Reports of dissension between ownership and management, management and players, players and coaches, coaches and ownership have run rampant the last couple of weeks and it’s created a nasty atmosphere in L.A.. After a successful winning streak that very much had the Lakers looking like legit title contenders, the road losses this week and a dispiriting near-loss to the Wolves without Kevin Love (or Ricky Rubio the final 30 seconds) wiped all that good will away.
The trade deadline is anxious for a lot of players, a lot of teams. But the Lakers seem especially urgent to get past it. If they can get through Thursday at 3 p.m. EST together, they might have the ability to clear their minds and make a run. Otherwise, they’ll have gone through the trades and at least it’ll be over. It’ like waiting for layoffs from your company, only instead of unemployment, you have to move to Charlotte (a wonderful city, I might add).
The Lakers face Boston Sunday afternoon.
