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Something I wanted to submit to the Times (or at least to Yahoo Sports)

Broke Backboard Mountain

Everyone knew it.

Everybody knows it.

But just like the Heath Ledger & Jake Gyllenhall film of almost the same name, no straight man wanted to believe it.

Until now.

How can you explain a player averaging 4.3 points, shooting a bizarre 29% from the field, and 7% (0.07) from 3-point range (that’s not a typo folks – ZERO POINT ZERO SEVEN) still manage to start the game, and average a whopping, a WHOPPING dose of 24.0 minutes per game?

No really, someone please elucidate this scenario.

Okay fine, just enlighten me.

“Well… Fisher has won a few champio…” So has Lindsay Hunter. But you don’t see the Bulls playing him 20+ minutes per game!

“Well… Ray Allen last season was struggl…” Fisher is NOT Ray Allen!!! Stop it!

Anything else? Nothing?

I thought so.

Now, let’s go ahead and take a look at the Laker’s two other options for that position:

Option A: Farmar
8.7 points per game
44% field goal shooting
50% 3-point range
0.83 steals
19.6 minutes per game

Option B: Brown
6.7 points per game
50% field goal shooting
57% 3-point range
1.0 steals per game
15.3 minutes per game

Incredible stats… comparing that against Fisher’s of course. Yet, how many minutes to Options A & B get out there on the floor? 19.6 mpg for A and 15.3 mpg for B -- that's an average of 7 minutes LESS per game than old man Fisher.

Usually Phil has a covert way of playing Fisher the bulk of the minutes on the floor, while giving Fisher’s two other counterparts the illusion of playing more or about the same number of minutes.

But after last night’s game, I think Phil, like Ennis (Ledger's character in the movie) just wanted to “come out of the closet”.

When Phil called his first timeout (Phil and timeouts by the way is another story) with the Lakers already down 13-1, many expected to see Farmar or possibly Brown to be subbed in place of the out-paced Fisher. Instead, the coach opted to put in Lamar Odom and Luke “Son of Bill” Walton for Bynum and Ariza. What happens next after that miraculous Phil timeout? Fisher takes back-to-back 3-pointers that led to long rebounds, which led to back-to-back break-away layups for one Luis Scola, extending the Lakers deficit to 17-1.

Fisher by the way, was 0-3 from 3-point range in that quarter.

When Phil was asked what the problem was for the slow 1st quarter start, during an interview conducted by Doris (whose last name escapes me but I believe it’s) Burke, Phil casually said that it was simply the Rockets hitting their shots, and possibly Pau Gasol not making the proper defensive adjustments leaving Luis Scola a little too open for comfort. Yet, not once did Phil mentions or clarify the fact that Gasol’s defensive “adjustments” all came from having to help double-team Fisher’s man who was getting into the paint rather easily leading to assists and “hockey” assists to his teammates.

Phil is known for keeping players on a short leesh and yanking out players who have mental breakdowns. Good example of this was a Mr. Sasha Vujacic (who is also another story). I’ve never seen someone get yanked out so quick for missing an open jumper before; Sasha only played 1:30 seconds in that 4th quarter. Yet, Phil does not seem to mind Fisher having constant mental relapses for the entire series. Phil was yanking out a 21 year old Kobe Bryant himself (already a 2-time NBA All-star, possibly 3-time if it weren't for the lockout) as well as limiting a 32 year old 3-time NBA All-star Glen Rice during the '99-'00 season. Yet, Phil couldn't do the same to 34 year old Fisher this year?

Do we really believe that Fisher’s flagrant elbow against Scola that got him ejected & suspended was done as a statement to his teammates? Mental FOULstration is more accurate.

Speaking of flagrants, the Lakers should have taken the opportunity of starting Farmar over Fisher in Game 3 as a hint; as a sign; as a blessing. Instead, it was another one of those lessons that Phil stubbornly ignores simply because he values his belief that veterans wins games. I do believe that theory of Phil, I do. But Fisher is no Robert Horry in the playoffs. He’s not even Ron Harper of 2001 in these playoffs. I can see it if old man Fisher can at least hang like older man Sam Cassell did with the Celtics last year, who by the way is 5 years Fisher's senior. But that is not even the case. That' is FAR from the case.

How about old man Eric Snow? Now, that can be debatable. By the way, is he still available?

The biggest mistake the Lakers have done was to make A.B. Aaron Brooks believe he could be A.I. Allen Iverson in the beginning of this whole series. Thank you Fish. I’m sure All-Star Chauncey Billups is looking forward to being inducted in the NBA Hall of Fame after your upcoming one-on-one WCF match-up. That is, if there will even be one for the Lakers.

There is a time when enough has to be enough. And if that time for Fisher hasn’t arrived quite yet, it’s definitely, definitely on the door step knocking.

Fisher is a great guy, an especially great locker room model for this team. But you don’t need minutes inside a locker room, much less 24 minutes per game.

Fisher still needs to play, but for the love of big G, give the bulk of the minutes to the guys who have produced and in turn have helped their teammates on the floor; they’ve at least earned some of it haven’t they?

I do not know how long Phil & Fish’s Broke Backboard Mountain will be playing in theatres. It may have won us a few Oscars a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean it can win us an Oscar today. I don't know how much Phil <3 Fish. But one thing I do know, is that just like the movie, no man is going to want to see it twice. Once is more than enough. And no one is going wait around looking forward for a sequel.

Wow.... pretty much nailed it.

I was about to post about my dissapointment in Fisher this series and I saw this post.

To me its not even the stats and shooting, its his effort and attitude. It has been downright awful at times.

In game 1 at the beginning of the second half I was thinking 'alright ugly first half but they weathered the emotional surge, time for the 3rd quarter max effort push' First or second play down the court Fish dribble into traffic on the baseline, then throws away a terrible pass, and then JUST STANDS THERE. Rockets run down and have a nice little 4 on 3 break, Fish never crosses half court.

I thought to myself right then, LA isn't winning this game. He then proceeds to play lax on Brooks and chases the ball on a crappy double team, Brooks hits a 3, gets confidence, and starts abusing Fish. Brooks was out of the game before that.

I've seen more of the same throughout the series. Bad decisions, bad attitude. Last night was terrible. We're making a sweet run in the 3rd. Artest drives baseling into two defenders and is trapped. For some reason Fish WALKS over to half heartedly tripleteam Artest for who knows why and then just stands there as Artest gives teh ball to Brooks for a wide open 3. Completely stupid decision. He's running aroud doubleteaming and scrabmling for no good reason all the time now.

He's supposed to be our steady reliable vet and I have yet to see any form of stabilty or leadership from him unless you want to call a cheapshot leadership.

Phil is retarted. If you are going to sit Bynum in Utah because the matchups are bad, SIT FISHER because the matchups are bad. I still like Fisher and I think he will be very valuable against Billups and other guys like Mo Williams. So curb his minutes this series and send him a damn message to start playing like the vet he is...

Well written.

Please foreward to this to the Lakers, ESPN, Los Angeles Sports Talk Radio. AM 570, ESPN 710. If you dont id liek your approval and ill do it myself. Nobody is ripping on that moron Phil Jackson. His comments want me come over and beat him with his stupid chair he has.


"There is nothing to worry about" - Phil Jackson After Game 4 and 6 loss to the depeleted Rockets.

Hey Phil take that Zen and Shove it.

Bullsh**!!

Who was guarding Brooks the entire fourth quarter last night when we couldn't a single meaningful stop? Not Fish!!!

This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

Why do we get picked and rolled to death? Its not only b/c of Fish, its b/c our bigs are terrible at "help and recover." Oh, unless they want to be good at it, then they are great. This is about team defensive effort. Not Fish!

And one more thing...

I realize everyone wants a scapegoat when things aren't perfect in La La Land, but its just plain pathetic to try and make Fish that guy.

Pathetic.

fareweatherfan wrote:This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

"0.4" single-handedly won us a Chip?

"0.4" got us to the WCF, but it didn't win us a Chip that season against DET.

No one is blaming it solely on Fisher. Fish 5 years ago is different than the Fish of today. In fact if you like "0.4" so much, we should have Fish come off the bench too like he did during that season 5 years ago -- that would probably benefit the Lakers THIS year against THIS series.

Phil implementing Fish has always been a big "?" during this whole series vs the Rockets.

If Phil keeps saying that he didn't want to start Bynum against Utah because of match-up problems, then why does he continually have Brooks get WARMED UP on Fish? Can you say mis-match? By the time the 4th quarter rolls along, Brooks is already on FIRE with all the confidence and momentum going in, thinking he is Allen Iverson reincarnated.

-

I'm a huge Fish fan. But he has flat-out sucked this season.

All the past champions for years now have faced brink of eliminations and game 7's. This will only make us stronger....but I understand everyones frustration, but we need to stand behind our team....

This -----------------

How can you explain a player averaging 4.3 points, shooting a bizarre 29% from the field, and 7% (0.07) from 3-point range (that’s not a typo folks – ZERO POINT ZERO SEVEN) still manage to start the game, and average a whopping, a WHOPPING dose of 24.0 minutes per game



And This --------------------

Now, let’s go ahead and take a look at the Laker’s two other options for that position:

Option A: Farmar
8.7 points per game
44% field goal shooting
50% 3-point range
0.83 steals
19.6 minutes per game

Option B: Brown
6.7 points per game
50% field goal shooting
57% 3-point range
1.0 steals per game
15.3 minutes per game


No wonder Phil Jackson gets paid 10 million a year, what an adjustment ehh.

Wow that was so spot on..that should for sure get published ..

Jordan-esque wrote:

fareweatherfan wrote:This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

"0.4" single-handedly won us a Chip?

"0.4" got us to the WCF, but it didn't win us a Chip that season against DET.

No one is blaming it solely on Fisher. Fish 5 years ago is different than the Fish of today. In fact if you like "0.4" so much, we should have Fish come off the bench too like he did during that season 5 years ago -- that would probably benefit the Lakers THIS year against THIS series.

Phil implementing Fish has always been a big "?" during this whole series vs the Rockets.

If Phil keeps saying that he didn't want to start Bynum against Utah because of match-up problems, then why does he continually have Brooks get WARMED UP on Fish? Can you say mis-match? By the time the 4th quarter rolls along, Brooks is already on FIRE with all the confidence and momentum going in, thinking he is Allen Iverson reincarnated.

-

LMAO at Fish coming off the bench like he did 5 years ago. Yeah, now let's compare Farmar to GP and or other starting PGs of the past. Good one.

Just a few weeks ago we were all ready to chase Jordan out of town, now he's our savior? Get real. Fish is not the problem, its our team mentality and attitude.

Pick another scapegoat, b/c no respectable Laker fan can blame this on Fish.

And if we're talking about last night's game, yeah Fish missed open shots in the first quarter, but so did EVERYONE. Brooks effectiveness in the first quarter last night was due to Pau's TERRIBLE defense on the pick and roll. He was constantly caught in no-man's land.

fareweatherfan wrote:Bullsh**!!

Who was guarding Brooks the entire fourth quarter last night when we couldn't a single meaningful stop? Not Fish!!!

This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

Why do we get picked and rolled to death? Its not only b/c of Fish, its b/c our bigs are terrible at "help and recover." Oh, unless they want to be good at it, then they are great. This is about team defensive effort. Not Fish!

what! we didn't even win a title whn fisher hit that shot. we were killed by the pistons in five games,because shaq was lazy on defense. kobe's shot was still in la while the gmaes were in detroit,and billups abused fisher,and payton badly...

^Can you blame me for forever erasing the Pistons series from my memory? LOL.

Point was that you go with what's gotten you there and with what's proven. ESPECIALLY, if its not even the part thats broken!!! This is not even about Fish.

Ray Allen is sucking like never before and the C's are playing great ball, b/c they play hard and play together!

fareweatherfan wrote:

Jordan-esque wrote:

fareweatherfan wrote:This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

"0.4" single-handedly won us a Chip?

"0.4" got us to the WCF, but it didn't win us a Chip that season against DET.

No one is blaming it solely on Fisher. Fish 5 years ago is different than the Fish of today. In fact if you like "0.4" so much, we should have Fish come off the bench too like he did during that season 5 years ago -- that would probably benefit the Lakers THIS year against THIS series.

Phil implementing Fish has always been a big "?" during this whole series vs the Rockets.

If Phil keeps saying that he didn't want to start Bynum against Utah because of match-up problems, then why does he continually have Brooks get WARMED UP on Fish? Can you say mis-match? By the time the 4th quarter rolls along, Brooks is already on FIRE with all the confidence and momentum going in, thinking he is Allen Iverson reincarnated.

-

LMAO at Fish coming off the bench like he did 5 years ago. Yeah, now let's compare Farmar to GP and or other starting PGs of the past. Good one.

Just a few weeks ago we were all ready to chase Jordan out of town, now he's our savior? Get real. Fish is not the problem, its our team mentality and attitude.

Pick another scapegoat, b/c no respectable Laker fan can blame this on Fish.

And if we're talking about last night's game, yeah Fish missed open shots in the first quarter, but so did EVERYONE. Brooks effectiveness in the first quarter last night was due to Pau's TERRIBLE defense on the pick and roll. He was constantly caught in no-man's land.

Glad you enjoyed the humor!

No respectable Laker fan can blame it on Fisher?

MAGIC JOHNSON himself was just on National TV asking Fisher to please step up! I guess he's not respectable enough huh.

Um... why was Pau's defense or should I say, HELP defense on the pick and roll terrible? Because the guy he was HELPING was getting out-stepped! It takes one player to loose his man, for the defense to start collapsing.

fareweatherfan wrote:^Can you blame me for forever erasing the Pistons series from my memory? LOL.

Point was that you go with what's gotten you there and with what's proven. ESPECIALLY, if its not even the part thats broken!!! This is not even about Fish.

Ray Allen is sucking like never before and the C's are playing great ball, b/c they play hard and play together!

Derek Fisher is like Ray Allen then? Good one!

We all know Fisher will always start (unless he pulls a Smush Parker 2 seasons ago). But that doesn't mean he should get most of the minutes to the guys who have been producing.

Again to reiterate, it is NOT SOLELY Fisher's fault whom you seem to be SOLELY targeting (Article is called Phil & Fish for a reason).

It's the whole Laker's fault, from Sasha to Pau to Phil; evryone's accountable. Heck I could write a similar article to everyone in the Lakers right now.

But you CANNOT, CANNOT deny that a big part, a BIG part of the problem in this series lies within Phil's PG rotation, as well as Fisher's lack of production. And I mean LACK of production.

If Phil is going to be consistent with playing the match-up games as he is tuned to always do, especially in the last series limiting Bynum against the Milsaps and Boozers, then why isn't Phil following through with the same match ups in this series?

Please answer that. Everyone in Lakerland, and especially I would love to hear it.

The only thing I hope right now is that Phil would tighten his roations; Fisher can start, but yank him out if he continues to struggle both offensively and defensively. Do not wait until his man, Aaron Brooks, start to feel like he's once again Allen Iverson.

fareweatherfan wrote:Bullsh**!!

Who was guarding Brooks the entire fourth quarter last night when we couldn't a single meaningful stop? Not Fish!!!

This article is such utter bullsh** and those of you "what have you done for me lately" fans who enjoyed reading this article have very short memory's. "0.4" literally single handedly won us a Chip.

Why do we get picked and rolled to death? Its not only b/c of Fish, its b/c our bigs are terrible at "help and recover." Oh, unless they want to be good at it, then they are great. This is about team defensive effort. Not Fish!

I thought it was much more aimed at Phil than Fish... yes Fish is getting toasted and there's no debating that, but I love him still, just think/know he's not the right guy out there for this particular matchup.

Really this is a coaching issue.

fareweatherfan wrote:^Can you blame me for forever erasing the Pistons series from my memory? LOL.

Point was that you go with what's gotten you there and with what's proven. ESPECIALLY, if its not even the part thats broken!!! This is not even about Fish.

Ray Allen is sucking like never before and the C's are playing great ball, b/c they play hard and play together!

Lol how in hell is our pg not the broken part? you know nothing about bball if your saying its not broken . A lot of our problems is cuz of fish. Fish cant pass cant shoot and most important cant play D. Our bigs are getting into foul trouble why cuz some old fart keeps getting burned by every sorry excuse of a PG that gose up vs the Lakers. You must love living in the past i know it was better times all around but me i like living for today not for yesterday.

No one is blaming Fish for the loss, just pointing out that his play and attitude is suprising and not good. Phil's decisions and attitude have been just suprising.

The way Phil talks after games its no wonder the team has the attitude it does.

Also not everyone is crying the sky is falling, I'm confident we're going to win game 7 and then beat the Nugs and get to the finals, it would just be nice to see the team do what they are capable of doing. Like people have said, you need to look no further then last season and the Cs. Sometimes tests are a good thing. Hell if we woudl have had a game 7 vs the Wolves in 04 that finals might have been very different.

Food for thought.

Anyway, I'd like to see Phil publicly call out the team once and a while. AND I'd like to see him treat guys more equal.

Killua wrote:

fareweatherfan wrote:^Can you blame me for forever erasing the Pistons series from my memory? LOL.

Point was that you go with what's gotten you there and with what's proven. ESPECIALLY, if its not even the part thats broken!!! This is not even about Fish.

Ray Allen is sucking like never before and the C's are playing great ball, b/c they play hard and play together!

Lol how in hell is our pg not the broken part? you know nothing about bball if your saying its not broken . A lot of our problems is cuz of fish. Fish cant pass cant shoot and most important cant play D. Our bigs are getting into foul trouble why cuz some old fart keeps getting burned by every sorry excuse of a PG that gose up vs the Lakers. You must love living in the past i know it was better times all around but me i like living for today not for yesterday.

This I hear and I agree we have a real offseason issue to deal with here, but Phil is who keeps Fish on the floor for that many minutes.