The Los Angeles Lakers have won just three of their first 16 games this season, and head coach Byron Scott has finally seen enough.
After Friday night’s 120-119 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, a visibly frustrated Scott went off on his team while speaking to reporters.
“Sooner or later you get tired of getting the crap beat out of you and you start manning up and doing the things you’re supposed to do. Simple as that,” he said, as transcribed by Nick Schwartz of USA Today. “You can’t play good, hard-nosed basketball one night and then look at the opponent the next night and say ‘oh we’ve got an easy one tonight.’ Doesn’t work that way in this sport. You get your [expletive] kicked doing that.”
Then came a fantastic metaphor. Here’s what Scott said when a reporter asked if his 3-13 team, which has lost four straight, can take any team in the NBA lightly.
“Absolutely not. You ever been to the zoo?” he asked. “You ever go and look at the elephants and the gorillas and the lions? You ever look at the monkeys? They normally looking right back at you? That’s what Minnesota was doing. Same as we, ‘Hey, this is a game we should win.’ You don’t think they were looking at us saying, ‘This is a game we should win?’ There’s nobody in this [expletive] league we should be looking at thinking, ‘This is an easy win.’ Period.”
Kobe Bryant had a decent look for the final shot of the game, but his jumper clunked off the front of the rim. The Lakers have won just one game at home this season. They host the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Here’s a video of Scott’s postgame press conference:
