LA Lakers ‘Fire D'Antoni’ Heats Up! Lakers Fans Want Coach's Head After His 'Find Another Team' Comment! ‘Pringles’ Apology Not Accepted
The Los Angeles Lakers Fans have earned quite a reputation. As with every iconic team, their city's fans will also be singled out.
Last season, the Miami Heat fans earned the reputation of being the worst in the NBA when they walked out of the coliseum even when the game wasn’t over. The sheer absurdity of banging on the doors when their team made the comeback of the year was just hilarious!
The Knicks fans are the most masochistic (the only explanation on how they can endure the season), the Celtic fans have the most pride. The Laker fans are the most demanding. These are the common impressions of some notorious NBA fans.
Perhaps Coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t get the memo. His controversial comments have the Lakers Nation irked. The context of the remarks is that D’Antoni was reacting to fans’ criticism after the Lakers had only 12 assists in one game. From ESPN LA:
“Why would I be discouraged? We’re fighting with a bunch of good guys that played well before and they’ll play [well] again. If [the fans] are discouraged, then, you know, find another team to root for. I’m all right. We’re not going to give up. Are you kidding me? Discouraged? That’s not even fair to these guys.
“[Missing] the playmaking is a big deal, there’s no doubt about it. But again, we’re going to be fine. I don’t want to keep harping. I know we have excuses. We’re not going to hang our heads and we’re going to go out and we’re going to battle Wednesday [against the Miami Heat on Christmas Day] and we’ll get this done.”
As always, the quote made the rounds of social media. His apology, quoted in the LA Times, was already too late.
“I was an idiot last night. I was out of my mind. I was ticked off. We didn’t play well and said some stuff I shouldn’t have. It was stupid. That’s me, I just made a mistake.”
“We need everybody to be pulling with us and it’s going to take the whole village to get this done. That was the meaning. I just said it wrong and it came out wrong because I was agitated. But I apologize, and we’ll move on. But we need everybody to be behind these guys. They’re going to play as hard as they can play.”
The damage was done. The fan base has been irked. “Fire D’Antoni” has been a battle cry (and a popular hashtag) since last season, when the Lakers had a starting five GMs could only dream of. At Christmas time last year, they just hit the .500 mark.
Now that they have the same record with a team that would give GMs a chuckle, ‘Pringles’ is looking for some appreciation—and he’s not getting any.
The Tinseltown team has a lot of rabid followers, and it doesn’t help D’Antoni’s case that many of them are famous. An astute observation by Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist) sums up the fans’ sentiment:
I know he's got a depleted roster. But even with a loaded one, his coaching concept is unsustainable and cannot win. Ever. Fire dantoni
— Flea (@flea333) December 24, 2013