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Jermaine O'Neal: "I remember asking some Lakers—Rick Fox, Derek Fisher—where Kobe was when they were out at a bar. They laughed and said, ‘He doesn’t go out. He stays in his room.’ Early in his career, people said he wasn’t a great teammate, but the truth is, his teammates didn’t know him well. That was his makeup—he was always studying, always preparing. It created a perception that he didn’t want to be around the team. And in the NBA, we’re always around each other, so if you don’t see a teammate, it feels like he doesn’t want to be part of the group. But with Kobe, it was just focus—it wasn’t personal."
Keerthika Uthayakumar: Draymond Green won his 18th playoff game against Houston tonight, tying Derek Fisher for the most playoff wins by an opposing player in Rockets postseason history. Look at the starting lineups the first time he & Steph Curry beat the Rockets (May 19, 2015).
Jorge Sierra: Giannis Antetokounmpo has passed Gary Payton and Derek Fisher in playoff scoring for No. 57 in NBA history. He moved ahead of Serge Ibaka and Dikembe Mutombo in rebounds for No. 54.
Jorge Sierra: Trae Young passed Wilt Chamberlain in assists last night for No. 85 in NBA history. He also moved ahead of Hedo Turkoglu, Derek Fisher, Shane Battier and CJ Miles for No. 89 in three-pointers.
It might be surprising to hear where Derek Fisher is now: high school. The Laker great just wrapped up his second season as the head coach of the Crespi High boys basketball team in Encino. After coaching previously in both the NBA and WNBA, Fisher was plotting his next move when his son and two stepsons began playing for Crespi in 2023. When Crespi’s coach left, the school approached Fisher. He wasn’t interested because his kids were on the team. “I’ve seen how the father-coach relationship can hurt the father-son relationship,” Fisher told KTLA’s Steve Hartman. But after some thought, he took the gig.
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Fisher admits he was “never the best player on any team I ever played on,” and was usually the smallest guy on the court too. Yet he still reached the pinnacle of NBA success by outworking the competition. He’s now trying to instill that same drive into his Crespi High players. “These are kids who are not ranked as the Top 100 recruits in the nation, and neither was I,” he says. “But if you can help someone access their highest levels of potential, maybe see something in themselves they haven’t seen yet, they might look at me and say if that guy who was born in Little Rock, played in Little Rock, can go on to do all the things he’s done, then why can’t I?”
Derek Fisher: I think that second year in 2001, that's when it really shifted a little bit. I think Kobe really felt like he was being asked to sacrifice a little too much. You have to remember, Kobe really saw himself—and ultimately became—one of the GOATs. Right? None of the guys on that list were the second guy. I mean, if you really go down the list of players we have GOAT conversations about, I don't know if any of those guys were the second guy. In 2001, Kobe started to feel like, "In order for me to be the GOAT that I know I'm capable of being, I’m willing to put the time in. I’m willing to wake up at 4 in the morning, get no sleep, train hard, play in every game, play through injuries, and do everything to become one of the greatest players of all time. Why am I being asked to do less and be less when my teammate—who is capable of just as much or more greatness—isn't maybe investing that same level of time, energy, etc.?" I think that was the year when it changed a little bit—from the healthy tension that great teams need, to more of a dynamic where one guy is maybe standing in the way of the other.
Derek Fisher on Kobe Bryant winning NBA title without Shaq: 'It was also for the writers and the newspaper people'
Derek Fisher on Kobe Bryant wanting to win NBA title without Shaq: ‘I'm not stupid. I knew that was a significant part of what was driving him. I knew that wasn't the only thing driving him. Part of it in ’09 was also the loss to the Celtics in '08. By the time we got back together to start training camp in '08 going into ’09 it's hard to describe bro how… you know those stories of how magic and Larry Bird talked about how they used to each wake up the next morning and get to read the paper and see which one did what and then they had to go out the next night like… that's how much we were paying attention to what the Boston cels were doing. We were obsessed with the Celtics… like bro they got us in '08, cool, enjoy your title, but that will never happen again.’
Derek Fisher: ‘That energy from Kobe was like on the surface of everything that we did from that season on. That's what really drove the '09, the 2010 push was’ we are never going to experience that feeling again bro that we just experienced in ’08’. and so when we get to the cusp of winning the title in ’09 like yeah you know the Shaq energy of like winning one without Shaq energy of like winning one without Shaq is there, more of that was media, then Kobe really like carrying it around every day. Even though you knew in the back of his mind like it was there but it wasn't just about I want to show Shaq, it was also the same people that were questioning whether or not he could actually lead a team to a championship without Shaq. It was also for them too, so it wasn't so much of a like ‘I gotta show Shaq this’, it was also for the writers and the newspaper people and the ones that ‘Kobe can't win without shag’, ‘Kobe can't do this, he doesn't know how to be a leader’. He also wanted to I think confirm his ability to to lead a team to the top.’
Derek Fisher on his famous 0.4 shot vs. Spurs: 'If you're on a team with Kobe and Shaq, the play is not for you'
Derek Fisher on his famous 0.4 shot vs. Spurs: ‘For a long time it reminded me of a down year, if that makes sense because we lost in the Finals to the Pistons, so I'm like ‘I don't want to remember 2004’, but you can’t escape the moment. Yeah the play wasn't design for me, and if you're on a team with Kobe and Shaq, the play is not for you. I'm not mad about that at all either. So the play wasn't designed for me, it was really the gravitational pull that the two of those guys have by pulling players towards them, like I just kind of stood there and waited for the right moment to go to the open space and I always give Gary Payton a ton of credit because he was taking the ball out and most guys will force it to the superstars in that situation, because they don't want to be the one that have to explain ‘why you tried to throw it to this dude as opposed to try to throw it to Kobe or Shaq?!’ So I always give GP major love for making like what was the right basketball decision, it ended up working out but a lot of dudes would have forced that ball to to Kobe or Shaq.’
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Los Angeles is confident that Redick will be the long-term coaching solution that has eluded the franchise for over a decade. ... But the 39-year-old Redick checks many of the boxes on the Lakers’ extensive checklist for their next coach. He’s drawn internal comparisons to a young Pat Riley as a coaching prospect who jumped from playing to the broadcast booth to the coaching chair. Los Angeles is confident he can be their version of Erik Spoelstra or Steve Kerr – a culture-setter who can grow with the franchise for over a decade. There have been far more former-player, first-time head coaches who failed to meet expectations than those who succeeded, though, with the most recent examples including Steve Nash (Brooklyn), Derek Fisher (Knicks), Jason Kidd (Brooklyn) and Ham.
Fisher won five NBA Championships with the Lakers and was the starting point guard on that 2001 team and he recently appeared on the Draymond Green Show. Fisher was a bit more reasonable in his argument with Green but still made his points: The best point Fisher made in regards to a series between the Lakers and Warriors is which set of rules would this hypothetical meeting be played under. Teams could be a lot more physical in the early 2000s and as Fisher noted, if he is able to grab and bang on Curry without being called for a bunch of fouls it makes a huge difference. And the same can be said if the more current rules were in place which would allow Curry, Durant and Thompson to run around more freely.
Derek Fisher: Shaq literally has changed people's dinner work bro. No double team, no triple team, anything could stop him. When you talk about the greatest teams ever, it's got to be a coin toss and it probably would depend on who has home court, and it depends on what rules are we playing. If we play the way I play defense we might have a chance cuz I'm beating Stephen Curry up.
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