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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 13, 2009

Derek Fisher

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. How would you describe Kobe as a passer?
DEREK FISHER: As a passer? He's pretty remarkable, actually. He has an ability to get himself in and out of trouble with his vision that I think improves his ability to dominate offensively. You know, he reads situations very well, and he's able to take double-teams and score, but he's also reading where the double-teams are coming from, who's coming, and we talk a lot during the game about staying prepared for a shot opportunity or for certain things to happen because of how teams are playing.
He loves to dominate a game, and so if he chose to pass more, he would easily average Chris Paul-type assist numbers. But he's a born scorer, and he's always said that, and we don't mind it because that sets up everything else that we do.

Q. We always said that Magic made the pass cool, so Kobe is not to the place where an assist is as great as his big shot?
DEREK FISHER: It is, but he just has a different mentality. I don't think there was anybody happier the other night after he kicked the ball out in overtime and I made the shot. I don't think it changes how he feels about winning and being successful, but that's just not how he grew up playing the game, that's not how he sees himself as a natural passer. He sees himself as a dominant scorer, one of the best to ever play this game, and it's that assertiveness and aggressiveness that become infectious of the rest of us. You see myself and Trevor Ariza and other guys on our team being more confident and willing to step up and make big plays because I think it starts with him.

Q. If you look at last year's press conferences, Kobe seemed to crack more jokes and maybe be a little bit more relaxed. He hasn't been like that this Finals. Why do you think that is? Why the change in demeanor? And are you guys able to enjoy this right now, or is it too much of a grind right now?
DEREK FISHER: Well, I think our experiences from last year were just so different prior to getting to this point. I don't think we were over-confident or assumed that we were going to win the championship before The Finals started, but to go through the Western Conference playoffs the way we did a season ago, I think we were able to walk in and feel as though we couldn't lose no matter who we played. We were playing that good of basketball, everybody on the team was playing well, there was no reason to believe that there was any team out there that could beat us.
Obviously that's been very different for us getting to this point this year. So I think there's just a change in perspective and a realization that even if you may be the more talented team, you've been really successful before today, there's no guarantee that things are going to end the way you want them to until it's actually done.
So this year he, myself, other guys on our team just haven't been as jovial and as excited about great things happening or really good things happening because until we win this fourth game in the series, it's too close to last year for us to feel as though we've won before we've won. We don't want to go through that feeling again of getting to the doorstep and not being strong enough and willing to stick our hand out and twist that doorknob and open the door and walk through it. We're not going to stand in front of the door this time. I think that's where the serious nature is coming from.

Q. For those of you who have gone through this before, it seemed like the first three championships, each one had its own unique meaning. Do you recall a different kind of feeling for each of those? And off of that then do you have a sense of what the fourth one would mean, especially seven years removed from the last?
DEREK FISHER: Yeah, they're definitive and very obvious differences from year to year. Winning the first championship is a really difficult thing to do, and we learned last season how difficult it is to try and finish it. We're on the doorstep of it now.
From year to year after you win one, you feel like you know what it takes to win, and so there's a confidence and a belief that no matter what you face, you'll figure out how to get things done, and the confidence that we played with in 2001 after going through what we went through in 2000 in terms of having problems in elimination games and not being able to beat teams to close them out, in 2001 we just weren't going to lose. It didn't matter. Even losing that first game in The Finals was very frustrating and disappointing for us.
This year and having the opportunity to win a fourth championship, like I said a few days ago, it feels like the first again. It's so far removed from 2002 and what I've personally been through, what everybody on our team -- there are a lot of guys on our team that were almost just graduating from middle school when we were winning championships in 2000 and 2001 and 2002, and now they're my teammates.
So it's a lifetime from the last championship won. So I see this championship as obviously one that will go on top of the three that I'm fortunate enough to have if we can get this done. But it feels new again. You know, that's why I'm laying everything that I possibly have out there to try to help this team.

Q. When you came back a couple years ago, how important was it that Mitch knew who you were as a player, Mitch really understand what you brought to the team? How important was that when you were deciding to come back here?
DEREK FISHER: I think the importance really lay in the value and the type of contract agreement we were able to reach. I don't think once we started talking, I don't think there was a question about me wanting to return to a team that I had been on before, obviously moving back to Los Angeles. But I think his and the organization's recognition of what I had been able to do before to help teams win and the desires of Kobe and other people in management and on the team to get back to those levels, that's why I think we were able to reach a good, solid contract. I think they easily could have forced my hand saying, look, we know you're moving back to LA anyway --

Q. Doesn't it say something about the whole Laker management culture that what you do is what they appreciate?
DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I think they've always had that reputation, that players that make a difference, players that have an impact on the team, the success of the team are people that the city feel good about, they support, they get behind, those are the guys that they're going to take care of, that they're going to try to keep around for long periods of time. I don't know if there are many other organizations that have guys like Magic Johnson and James Worthy and other guys that played years 1 through 12 or 13 with the same team. And I think it's because of those reasons. It's not just a numbers thing or how many points and whatnot that you average, but your true impact on the team, and I think on the organization and the city of LA.

End of FastScripts

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