If this was the Los Angeles Lakers’ idea of a birthday present for Byron Scott, I hope they kept the gift receipt.
The Lakers lost to the Utah Jazz by a a final score of 123-75 on Monday night, Scott’s birthday. Afterward, he made it clear he was none to pleased with the team’s effort, per Lakers Nation’s Serena Winters:
Byron Scott on TWCSN post-game (1/3): "Every game you play, there’s something to play for & pride might be the biggest thing…"
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) March 29, 2016
Byron (2/3):"You’ve got to show this organization that you deserve to be here & you understand what wearing that purple & gold is all about"
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) March 29, 2016
Byron Scott (3/3): "I don’t think a lot of guys in that locker room understand that."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) March 29, 2016
BRUH.
I get that Scott is old fashioned and a former Lakers player and probably coaching for his job. I even get that coaches need to sometimes be blunt, if painfully so, during times of tumult, even if the team isn’t supposed to be good, because that’s their job.
But this is another level of trolling.
Yes, the Lakers’ loss was bad. And sure, this team is bad, the worst squad in Lakers history. But Byron Scott cannot use one loss, one season of loss-loaded disappointment from a roster that, frankly, was built to deliver loss-loaded disappointment, as a means to question his players’ understanding of what it means to be a Laker.
Some of these guys, like D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson, weren’t old enough to be diehard hoops heads during the Lakers’ glory days. This version of the Lakers, the one that misses the playoffs and sells fans on free-agency pipe dreams, is all they’ve known for most, if not all, of their young adult lives.
If Byron Scott really has legitimate qualms with effort levels and player psyches, he should be chit-chatting with his troops behind closed doors, not in front of the media, as an authority figure who sounds like he’s making excuses.
