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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURS

May 30, 2007

Derek Fisher

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Five

Q. Derek, how is your daughter and what was your day like?
DEREK FISHER: She's doing well. Thank you.
I mean, obviously I haven't seen her the last couple hours, but we had a successful treatment this morning, as far as we can tell at this point and we are just back to day-to-day for a few weeks just watching and monitoring what's going on with her.
You know, we have a life-long battle ahead of us, so we're just taking things one day at a time.

Q. Same kind of treatment as before?
DEREK FISHER: Yeah, same treatment as before. She is responding well and hopefully we can keep going in a positive direction.

Q. Derek, you've had a lot of ups and downs in your first season with the Jazz. Can you talk about the emotions now that it's over?
DEREK FISHER: That's a good question. I mean, I think we -- we had an unbelievable season, you know. Even though my emotions are mixed right now in terms of how disappointing it is for our season to be over, I cannot let what we accomplished as a team go by unnoticed or untalked about.
You know, we accomplished a great deal in the season for a team that has a very young nucleus and some parts that hadn't really worked together before, some rookies that gave us some great contributions.
So in terms of my emotions, I am disappointed with the results of the Western Conference Finals and the way our season has ended. But to be on the doorstep of having an opportunity to win a championship in basically our first season together in terms of this group, I think it says a lot about our team.
I think what we have to take from this is that we have to realize that this opportunity is not for free. This doesn't just happen to you during your NBA career. This is something that you earn. We didn't get to this point on accident, and if we ever want to get to this point again, we have a lot of work to do.

Q. Derek, you did have a great season. So being a leader of your team, what do you tell your teammates to build on, what you accomplished this year and carry over into next year?
DEREK FISHER: You know, part of me feels like I -- not failed because I think we did a great job, but I just -- I couldn't kind of transfer the taste that I have in my mouth for being the best over to everybody.
You know, I feel like if I could have done that, if I could have really given everyone a sense of how good it feels to be an NBA champion, I think we really could have done it. We got this close without really having a team that understands what it takes to get there.
I feel like my leadership and what I can bring to this team, it is something that I want to think long and hard about this off season. I'm sure tonight will help. Our season ending for a lot of these guys will give them a feel for how bad it feels to lose your last game. It is the worst feeling in sports.
And so hopefully we will take that into our off season and, you know, see where we can go from here. But it is very obvious we have some very good pieces and a team that can be good for a long time.

Q. Derek, when you got to the game tonight at halftime and you saw the score and you shifted back into basketball mode, what was your first thought?
DEREK FISHER: Man, actually the pilots on the plane were kind enough to give me a score in the first quarter, and, you know, at that point I knew we were going -- I know miracles are possible and I knew that's what we were going to need in order to come back and win this game.
I didn't feel that I was that miracle necessarily, but I felt really as I was driving over here, if we can just figure out a way to get this thing back to 10 by the start of the fourth quarter, we could still have a chance. That's just the way I believe.
When the third quarter started, that was my hope, you know. They came and snowballed us there in the third quarter and it made us hard to have an effort to get back into it.

Q. Go back to what you mentioned about what is missing for this team, what do you think it will take to get from this point to completion, so to say?
DEREK FISHER: I think tonight was probably the biggest first step that you can have in terms of the completion of a team.
As I look back on two or three seasons that we had in '98 and '99, losing and getting swept out of the playoffs or getting beat the way we have in this series, that's the big first step that I think you have to take as a team.
And then, hopefully, your main pieces, your key guys get an opportunity to stay together and get that opportunity the following season and then maybe another season after that.
So I think tonight is the beginning, it is not the end. Hopefully, we can look at it that way and really start setting our sights on what's to come for next season, because there are 26 other teams that, you know, wished they had the opportunity that we had before our game was over tonight.
Like I said, it is just not easy in professional sports to have an opportunity to win a championship and we had that opportunity. As sad as it feels to lose, I just can't -- I can't put my head down, and I don't think anybody on our team should put our heads down.

Q. Derek, I know there is a lot of frustration in your locker room, but Deron was talking about some guys taking an early vacation and questioned the heart of some of the guys. I understand the frustration. Can you comment on that? Do you see anything in the locker room?
DEREK FISHER: No. You know what? I can't comment on, you know, the makeup of individuals outside of myself. And you don't ever really have to say names. Guys always know who they are, what they are capable of and what their purpose is.
You can't make people do what you need them to do on a team and we'll see.
It is unfortunate because, like I said, we had a real chance to be the best team in the league right now. So hopefully whoever that is that, you know, had other plans for next week, then they'll be able to think about it for a long time now. Hopefully they will enjoy it.

End of FastScripts

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