duncan228
06-07-2009, 12:09 AM
Will the hoop gods smile on Fisher in NBA championship series? (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12537009?source=rss)
By Kurt Kragthorpe
Salt Lake Tribune
After leaving the Utah Jazz in search of an NBA championship, Karl Malone collided with Los Angeles Lakers teammate Derek Fisher and hurt his knee during the victory that sent them into the 2004 Finals.
The injury greatly bothered Malone throughout a series the Lakers would lose to Detroit, ending the Mailman's title quest and leading coach Phil Jackson to conclude, "The basketball gods can sometimes be most cruel."
Their next subject: Fisher.
If Malone was not deemed worthy of a title by whatever forces govern these things, what about Fisher? Will he be granted a fourth championship with the Lakers in this decade, after asking to be released from his Jazz contract?
Ultimately, would a victory validate his decision to leave Utah?
"I guess personally, or emotionally, in a sense, it would," Fisher said, launching a complex, 262-word response.
The view of Fisher remains mixed in Utah, where he was resoundingly booed at EnergySolutions Arena during his initial return in November 2007. The harsh treatment has lessened since then, amid factors that include how much the Jazz would be paying Fisher to play a limited role.
Other than coach Jerry Sloan's wry references to "a couple of gifts" the Lakers received in trading for Pau Gasol and signing Fisher, the Jazz have supported the late owner Larry H. Miller's decision to release Fisher, who said at the time that his basketball career was "at risk" as he searched for a home where his infant daughter's cancer could be more readily treated.
Whether the outcome of the NBA Finals is a valid judgment of how pure Fisher's motives were in becoming a Laker again, or if the "basketball gods" Jackson cited really kept Fisher and the Lakers from beating Boston in last June's Finals, another championship appears inevitable for them. That potential triumph "gives a meaning to what happened in an even deeper way," said Fisher, a point guard who would become the first former Jazz player of the Utah era to start for a title-winning team. Four alumni have made minimal contributions.
For the moment, Fisher joins a long list of ex-Jazzmen -- including Malone and Adrian Dantley, whose retired jerseys hang in ESA -- who have lost in the NBA Finals. He's getting another chance, and responded with a solid nine-point effort in Thursday's Game 1 victory over Orlando, leading teammate Kobe Bryant to say, "We're going to need him."
Fisher maintains he did not move back to Los Angeles for the sake of basketball, regardless of how his choice is viewed. During the first-round playoff series with the Jazz in April, Fisher talked about how reflecting on the response in Utah made him realize that outside approval was not important to him.
In advance of Sunday's Game 2, Fisher said a title "would be just another step a long the way of a life lived with purpose ... and so coming back for reasons outside of basketball, everything that happened with that redefined what the purpose of my life was and is, and where basketball has its place in my life. As important as it is to me, it's not everything. It doesn't make me a whole person, per se. But to win a championship, I think, is still a part of that process."
Fisher illustrated his dual commitment to his job and family in May 2007, in his only season with the Jazz after being traded from Golden State. In one of the most memorable playoff moments in Jazz history, he arrived at the arena during the third quarter of a game with the Warriors, having accompanied Tatum, then 10 months old, to New York for the initial treatment of retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer lodged behind her eye.
Inserted into the game without even stopping along the bench, Fisher eventually helped the Jazz force overtime and hit his only shot, a clinching three-pointer. Two months later, after the Jazz played in the Western Conference finals for the only time since 1998, he requested his release to accommodate his daughter.
Tatum, who will turn 3 in three weeks, is doing well. The frequency of her treatments has been reduced and her fourth birthday next June is a milestone for young cancer patients.
The Jazz have saved money; they owed Fisher nearly $21 million over three seasons (he signed with the Lakers for about two-thirds of that), which is exorbitant for a backup point guard who will turn 35 in August. The roster move facilitated the growth of guard Ronnie Brewer, after Fisher had played two positions for the Jazz, although they have kept searching for a dependable backup to Deron Williams.
Generally, losing Fisher hurt the Jazz less than it helped the Lakers, who beat them in the playoffs each of the past two seasons. The Lakers badly needed a point guard, and Fisher has stabilized them with "professionalism," Jackson said, serving as "a great example to our young players."
Fisher posted career highs or close to them in most statistics last season before dropping off this year and struggling with his shot during the playoffs, when his biggest impact was leading with an elbow and shoulder into Houston's Luis Scola while setting a screen. That resulted in an ejection and one-game suspension that seemed to galvanize the Lakers.
Was it merely another shrewd, calculated act by Fisher? Did it unfairly help his team? Should it make Fisher any less worthy of an NBA championship, when his intentions already were being questioned in Utah?
Soon enough, the basketball gods will have their say.
By Kurt Kragthorpe
Salt Lake Tribune
After leaving the Utah Jazz in search of an NBA championship, Karl Malone collided with Los Angeles Lakers teammate Derek Fisher and hurt his knee during the victory that sent them into the 2004 Finals.
The injury greatly bothered Malone throughout a series the Lakers would lose to Detroit, ending the Mailman's title quest and leading coach Phil Jackson to conclude, "The basketball gods can sometimes be most cruel."
Their next subject: Fisher.
If Malone was not deemed worthy of a title by whatever forces govern these things, what about Fisher? Will he be granted a fourth championship with the Lakers in this decade, after asking to be released from his Jazz contract?
Ultimately, would a victory validate his decision to leave Utah?
"I guess personally, or emotionally, in a sense, it would," Fisher said, launching a complex, 262-word response.
The view of Fisher remains mixed in Utah, where he was resoundingly booed at EnergySolutions Arena during his initial return in November 2007. The harsh treatment has lessened since then, amid factors that include how much the Jazz would be paying Fisher to play a limited role.
Other than coach Jerry Sloan's wry references to "a couple of gifts" the Lakers received in trading for Pau Gasol and signing Fisher, the Jazz have supported the late owner Larry H. Miller's decision to release Fisher, who said at the time that his basketball career was "at risk" as he searched for a home where his infant daughter's cancer could be more readily treated.
Whether the outcome of the NBA Finals is a valid judgment of how pure Fisher's motives were in becoming a Laker again, or if the "basketball gods" Jackson cited really kept Fisher and the Lakers from beating Boston in last June's Finals, another championship appears inevitable for them. That potential triumph "gives a meaning to what happened in an even deeper way," said Fisher, a point guard who would become the first former Jazz player of the Utah era to start for a title-winning team. Four alumni have made minimal contributions.
For the moment, Fisher joins a long list of ex-Jazzmen -- including Malone and Adrian Dantley, whose retired jerseys hang in ESA -- who have lost in the NBA Finals. He's getting another chance, and responded with a solid nine-point effort in Thursday's Game 1 victory over Orlando, leading teammate Kobe Bryant to say, "We're going to need him."
Fisher maintains he did not move back to Los Angeles for the sake of basketball, regardless of how his choice is viewed. During the first-round playoff series with the Jazz in April, Fisher talked about how reflecting on the response in Utah made him realize that outside approval was not important to him.
In advance of Sunday's Game 2, Fisher said a title "would be just another step a long the way of a life lived with purpose ... and so coming back for reasons outside of basketball, everything that happened with that redefined what the purpose of my life was and is, and where basketball has its place in my life. As important as it is to me, it's not everything. It doesn't make me a whole person, per se. But to win a championship, I think, is still a part of that process."
Fisher illustrated his dual commitment to his job and family in May 2007, in his only season with the Jazz after being traded from Golden State. In one of the most memorable playoff moments in Jazz history, he arrived at the arena during the third quarter of a game with the Warriors, having accompanied Tatum, then 10 months old, to New York for the initial treatment of retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer lodged behind her eye.
Inserted into the game without even stopping along the bench, Fisher eventually helped the Jazz force overtime and hit his only shot, a clinching three-pointer. Two months later, after the Jazz played in the Western Conference finals for the only time since 1998, he requested his release to accommodate his daughter.
Tatum, who will turn 3 in three weeks, is doing well. The frequency of her treatments has been reduced and her fourth birthday next June is a milestone for young cancer patients.
The Jazz have saved money; they owed Fisher nearly $21 million over three seasons (he signed with the Lakers for about two-thirds of that), which is exorbitant for a backup point guard who will turn 35 in August. The roster move facilitated the growth of guard Ronnie Brewer, after Fisher had played two positions for the Jazz, although they have kept searching for a dependable backup to Deron Williams.
Generally, losing Fisher hurt the Jazz less than it helped the Lakers, who beat them in the playoffs each of the past two seasons. The Lakers badly needed a point guard, and Fisher has stabilized them with "professionalism," Jackson said, serving as "a great example to our young players."
Fisher posted career highs or close to them in most statistics last season before dropping off this year and struggling with his shot during the playoffs, when his biggest impact was leading with an elbow and shoulder into Houston's Luis Scola while setting a screen. That resulted in an ejection and one-game suspension that seemed to galvanize the Lakers.
Was it merely another shrewd, calculated act by Fisher? Did it unfairly help his team? Should it make Fisher any less worthy of an NBA championship, when his intentions already were being questioned in Utah?
Soon enough, the basketball gods will have their say.