The Los Angeles Lakers' ship is sinking, and the captain is taking shots at the top lieutenant. Mike D'Antoni has chosen to fire back at his center Pau Gasol, who ripped the coach's leadership earlier this week.
Lakers' Pau Gasol rips head coach for lacking discipline
"You have to be disciplined and implement discipline, that's how you kind of make that better or make that not a factor," Gasol said, in an obvious shot at D'Antoni. "I don't think there's a lot of discipline right now."
The Lakers coach, who has had his run-ins with Gasol before, didn't take the insult lying down. "The thing I just don't appreciate ... You just keep it in-house," D'Antoni said. "It's very easy just to come over and talk about your frustrations. We'll try to work something out. We'll figure something out.
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"But to go to (the media) and to do it in the papers, that's disturbing. I just don't think that's the way to go and people should understand that we're all trying to solve the same problem, so let's just put our heads together and do the best we can."
The Lakers are far beyond the point where putting their heads together will create much difference. L.A. has dropped their past three games, and at 19-39 have the worst record in the Western Conference.
Upon learning D'Antoni took exception to his remarks, a defiant Gasol didn't back down. "Yes, there was some frustration, but I don't think it was nothing out of line or nothing that went too far," Gasol said. "I stated something obvious, to me. I don't think I said anything too crazy. To me, it wasn't that big of a deal. It was just the emotions and the frustrations of a tough loss and a bad game on our part, I think, for the most part."
D'Antoni mainly bristled at the discipline aspect of Gasol's quotes, and even granted on the basketball end he had a point.
"I have no idea what he's talking about," D'Antoni said. "(Tuesday) night, like (Gasol) said, we should have had more ball movement, but I don't know what that has to do with discipline. It has to do with guys trying too hard, guys not really understanding the system totally and not really getting ingrained into it and so I think in that aspect, I can understand what he's talking about, but I don't know why he used that word."
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