ChrisRichards
02-12-2012, 09:05 AM
"I only played 20 minutes the other night, so when I play a little bit of minutes I always try to get extra work," World Peace said before the Lakers played the Knicks on Friday night. "If I play my regular minutes, I don't need to do extra work. I didn't know how many minutes I was going to play that night, so I had to get extra work done."
Has he spoken with Brown about the inconsistency in his playing time?
"No, I let him coach and I play," World Peace said. "I just want to be ready and I figured I probably won't play as much because some games I play and some games I don't. So I just want to keep myself in shape.
The player formerly known as Artest believes that Brown's coaching is too dictated by stats, and that his 16.4 percent (9-of-55!) shooting from beyond the 3-point line and 51.4 percent from the free-throw line shouldn't keep him off the floor in the fourth quarter, when, he said, "I'm gonna make a big stop and I may make a big shot."
You don't have to be a stat-head to recognize how damning those numbers are. World Peace suggests that when he was on the floor at the end of the Boston game, the Lakers won. When he was on the bench in Philly and Utah at the end of the fourth, they lost.
"I'm trying to win," World Peace said. "And right now, coach is a stats guy. His background is video coordinator or whatever. So he's all stats. But Ron Artest is all feel. He doesn't understand that. Having me in the game at the end, he was worried about me shooting bad from the free throw line. And I was like, 'I could care less because I'm gonna get a stop at the end of the game.' He didn't understand the rhythm that we had -- me, Fish [Derek Fisher], Kobe , Pau [Gasol] and Drew [Andrew Bynum]. I've been through games where I would have two points, go 1 for 9 and we'd win. That's what matters. Stats are for people who need stats."
[B]"If I could count how many times another team went away from the best player when I was on him, I've got to be like No. 1 in the league," World Peace said. "That's not a stat, and coach doesn't ... you would have to play basketball to feel that. When Phil Jackson was here, that's why I was in the game, because he understands that. Philly and Utah, I was on the bench because of stats.
"Every game on the road is gonna be close," he said. "But I think they panic a little bit when the games get close. But me, Kobe, Pau, Fish, we expect the games to be close. We expect to pull them out, and we don't panic. And coach, he panicked a little bit: 'I need to make a change.' So I just sit on the bench and wait and see what happens."
"The real stat is the wins," World Peace said. "That's the only stat that should count. If you win, that's all that matters. If I'm 1 for 10 from the free-throw line, 3 for 15 from the 3-point line, 29 percent from field goal, no rebounds, no assists and we won, bam. It doesn't matter because at the end of the game, I'm gonna get a big stop, I might hit a big shot.
"And then the player's gonna take a stupid shot because I'm on him because he has no other choice but to take a dumb shot," W.P. said. "And we win the game and go home, have some oatmeal the next morning. It's real simple, man. The coach, he's got to get used to that."
Has he spoken with Brown about the inconsistency in his playing time?
"No, I let him coach and I play," World Peace said. "I just want to be ready and I figured I probably won't play as much because some games I play and some games I don't. So I just want to keep myself in shape.
The player formerly known as Artest believes that Brown's coaching is too dictated by stats, and that his 16.4 percent (9-of-55!) shooting from beyond the 3-point line and 51.4 percent from the free-throw line shouldn't keep him off the floor in the fourth quarter, when, he said, "I'm gonna make a big stop and I may make a big shot."
You don't have to be a stat-head to recognize how damning those numbers are. World Peace suggests that when he was on the floor at the end of the Boston game, the Lakers won. When he was on the bench in Philly and Utah at the end of the fourth, they lost.
"I'm trying to win," World Peace said. "And right now, coach is a stats guy. His background is video coordinator or whatever. So he's all stats. But Ron Artest is all feel. He doesn't understand that. Having me in the game at the end, he was worried about me shooting bad from the free throw line. And I was like, 'I could care less because I'm gonna get a stop at the end of the game.' He didn't understand the rhythm that we had -- me, Fish [Derek Fisher], Kobe , Pau [Gasol] and Drew [Andrew Bynum]. I've been through games where I would have two points, go 1 for 9 and we'd win. That's what matters. Stats are for people who need stats."
[B]"If I could count how many times another team went away from the best player when I was on him, I've got to be like No. 1 in the league," World Peace said. "That's not a stat, and coach doesn't ... you would have to play basketball to feel that. When Phil Jackson was here, that's why I was in the game, because he understands that. Philly and Utah, I was on the bench because of stats.
"Every game on the road is gonna be close," he said. "But I think they panic a little bit when the games get close. But me, Kobe, Pau, Fish, we expect the games to be close. We expect to pull them out, and we don't panic. And coach, he panicked a little bit: 'I need to make a change.' So I just sit on the bench and wait and see what happens."
"The real stat is the wins," World Peace said. "That's the only stat that should count. If you win, that's all that matters. If I'm 1 for 10 from the free-throw line, 3 for 15 from the 3-point line, 29 percent from field goal, no rebounds, no assists and we won, bam. It doesn't matter because at the end of the game, I'm gonna get a big stop, I might hit a big shot.
"And then the player's gonna take a stupid shot because I'm on him because he has no other choice but to take a dumb shot," W.P. said. "And we win the game and go home, have some oatmeal the next morning. It's real simple, man. The coach, he's got to get used to that."