KWAME BROWN- Exit Interview.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Exit Interview: Kwame Brown

Q: What do you think at the end of the season, with the team starting out 26-13, then everything gradually coming to a halt? How disappointing is that for you?

Kwame Brown: It's very disappointing, especially sitting and watching and being hurt. Being injured.  We talked in our exit interview about (me) being out there for 75, 80 games and not missing 41 games. It wasn't my fault that I rolled my ankle, but at the same time, I did miss a lot of games.

Q: Have you decided when or if you'll be having surgery?

KB: I gotta go see a doctor tomorrow about my shoulder and then I see another doctor Wednesday about my ankle in Indianapolis.

Q: So your summer vacation starts when?

KB: (Smiles) It's not a vacation. Summer rehab starts now. I'm gonna leave next week, Monday and I gotta be there next week to see (ankle specialist) Dr. Porter.

Q: Is it the bursitis in the shoulder or something else?

KB: Yeah, well it's always bursitis. I have a torn supraspinatus and we're going to take out the bursitis.  I've been playing with it, so I just gotta deal with it now.

Q: Pretend for a second that I don't know what a suprapinatus is.

KB: It's part of your rotator cuff.

Q: It'll require surgery to fix that?

KB: We're not sure. I don't want to jump the gun. We'll let the doctors decide.

Q: What about the ankle?

KB: Ankle's he same. I'm gonna go see Dr. Porter. He's gonna give me three weeks to lay off it and see if it calms down.

Q: If you have surgery on both parts of your body ...

KB: It's going to be a long summer. (Laughs)

Q: Can you have it all at once?

KB: I don't know.

Q: I thought the shoulder had gotten better, that the pain had gone away. Has it gotten worse?

KB: It went away because I haven't been lifting on it and doing any training on it. I'd just been rehabbing it and icing it. That's about it.

Q: Will that set back your training some?

KB: Yeah, but hopefully, I can either do one or the other. If I have to do ankle surgery, then I won't do the shoulder surgery. I'll just wait.

Q: Which is the bigger priority?

KB: My foot.

Q: Is the shoulder something you can play with?

KB: Yeah, I can just rehabbing it and just play with it. But the foot, you definitely gotta fix.

Q: What do you think this team can do to get yourself to the next level?

KB: Well, we gotta get healthy for one. And then we gotta play together more. I think at times of adversity, we just split up. I think we gotta be more of a team unit and support everyone. Not just think you have to do it on your own.

Q: What were some of the things Mitch and Phil talked to you about during your interview?

KB: Mine was interesting. (Laughs) They talked about playing. I've been hurt for so long, so we just addressed what am I gonna do, when am I gonna do it, how fast am I gonna get back here to start rehabbing.

Q: The '05-'06 season ended with you on a very nice roll and then you started this season hurt. Do you think that hurt your chances of continuing that flow?

KB: Yeah, of course. Any time you get injured, you gotta take a time period to get back into rhythm and get back into shape. This year's been crazy for me because most of the times, I didn't practice. I've just been playing in the games.

Q: Does the season almost feel like unfinished business, in a way?

KB: Unfinished business, if that's the way you want to put it. I feel bad, because I wasn't there for most of the season. 41 games is a lot of games. When I got hurt, we were playing a lot of the four-games-in-five-nights type of deal. Back to back to back.

Q: Kobe has expressed some frustration the last couple days, talking about changes needing to be made. Do you feel the same way? What do you feel about the way this team is headed?

KB: That's not my job. My job is to get as healthy as possible and be the best I can to try to help the team. I don't talk about making changes. When you start talking about that, then you're not a basketball player, you're a personnel guy. That's not me. I'm a basketball player.

Q: Aside from just getting healthy, what do you want to work on in terms of helping this team get to the next level?

KB: Once I'm healthy, I have confidence that we're a better team and I'm a better player. I just have to get through all these injuries. We had a good thing rolling once I got back from the shoulder. We were winning a lot of games. Then I got hurt, went down with the ankle. Tough adjustment.

Q: It seems like there's two schools of thought. One that the Lakers are young and a lot of guys were hurt, so if you put the same team out there, healthy and a year older, that's how you get better. Then there's the other school that says changes need to be made. Do you think you fall into the first one?

KB: When you lose like we have, there's really no right or wrong answer. Hindsight is 20/20.  Everybody's a genius after it's over. Who knows? You could make changes and end up worse. You could stay with the team you have and end up better. Or worse. But I think the longer you have guys in this system, and this is not an easy system to learn, you get adjusted to it. The longer you have guys in the system, I think the better it's gonna be.

Q: Are you gonna be interested in the developments coming out of Laker camp this summer? Or are you just focusing on your own things?

KB: I'm just focusing on me. I'm at the point where I gotta get healthy. It's definitely a critical summer for me with all the injuries I've had. It being a contract year next year, I definitely gotta be real focused on this summer.

Report Card-
Kwame Report Card: Give Kwame Brown credit. There are many ways folks will describe his career, but "boring" ain't one of them. There always seems to be something to discuss when it comes to the team's starting center. Off the top of my head, this season alone featured a myriad of injuries (one of which prompted Phil Jackson to implement prop comedy to cajole a return), a brilliant Game 3 sandwiched between four other pretty ordinary playoff efforts, and an off-court incident that really ... wait for it ... takes the cake.

Came up with that all by myself, folks. Such witticisms are just one reason I make a living as a writer.

Kwame remains a hotbed of debate in part because everyone isn't demanding the same things from him. If you're hoping for a two-way player, the bobbles and blown layups leave one more frustrated than Tom Sizemore's sponsor. But for me, the muffs fall somewhere between "laugh to keep from crying" and "head-shaking." Honestly, the biggest reason I hate when Kwame fumbles the rock is because it not only represents a potential turnover or fruitless possession, but because Kwame's actually a pretty good passer, a skill often negated by an inability to keep ball movement flowing. When it comes to Kwame's offense, I'm less concerned with how many points he scores as just simply being a threat to score, period.  As long as attention must be paid by whoever's guarding him (so the Lakers aren't playing four on five), I don't really care if Kwame puts up the "15" from the "15/10" card Phil Jackson gave him during the last off-season. It would be sweet, of course, but I won't lose sleep over it ...

... assuming the "10" part is covered. And there lies my biggest beef with Kwame. Whether because he doesn't anticipate a ball's flight well, doesn't try hard enough for loose balls not in his immediate vicinity, doesn't want the rebound enough to rip the rock from a teammate's mitts (or, as I suspect, all of the above), Kwame's simply not a good enough rebounder. His 10.4 rp48 isn't great compared to other NBA centers or even his fellow Laker bigs. He's barely out-boarding Brian Cook, who doesn't exactly have a glass-eater's rep. Any post player who prides himself on D will pride himself on rebounding, which is why I expect it--among other things--from Kwame if he's going to become a true (and complete) defensive force.

Obviously, there's no denying how well Kwame does bodying up the Tim Duncans of the world and denying position. He could be among the league's top five at that particular skill set. But there's more to patrolling the paint than just being an immovable one-on-one force. He needs to rotate better, prevent more layups by guys other than just his man, block more shots and generally create a greater variety of havoc. Even if Kwame becomes nothing more than a poor man's Ben Wallace, no worries. You can do considerably worse than that. But at this point, he's more "Homeless Man's" Big Ben than simply "poor."  If defense is destined to become Kwame's calling card, his needs to be better-rounded. And if he's concerned about making an impression on the Lakers--or another team--during a contract year (I mention this because he later mentions it), it would serve him well to improve upon these aspects I'm mentioning.  Final Grade: C+

[7even]

Sounds like he'll never be the same.


















LMAO. Who am I kidding, we're talking about Kwame here. Who cares if he has to take surgery or not 

[GangstaBoogy]

Is there a such thing as hand replacements?

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Kwame Brown, Age 24. Numbers when HEALTHY as a starter:

March 20th W @ Boston 11 points (5-7 FG), 9 rebounds, 5 assists.
March 22nd W vs. Sacramento 21 points (8-12 FG), 12 Rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.
March 24th W vs. Milwauakee 16 points (6-10 FG), 9 rebounds, 1 assist.
March 26th W vs. New Orleans 17 points (7-7 FG), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks.
March 30th L vs. San Antonio 9 points (3-8 FG), 10 rebounds.
March 31st W @ Seattle 12 points (4-5 FG), 13 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block.
April 2nd W vs. Houston 10 points (4-7 FG), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block.
April 6th L @ Denver 15 points (5-9 FG), 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block.
April 9th W vs. Clippers 9 points (3-7 FG), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal.
April 11th W vs. Golden State 15 points (7-10 FG), , 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block.
April 14th W vs. Portland 20 points (7-9 FG), 9 rebounds, 2 asists, 2 steals.
April 16th W vs. Phoenix 10 points (3-10 FG), 7 rebounds.
April 19th W vs. New Orleans 19 points (7-8 FG), 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

PLAYOFFS
April 23rd L @ Phoenix 14 points (5-12 FG), 6 rebounds.
April 26th W @ Phoenix 12 points (4-8 FG), 2 rebounds, 2 blocks.
April 28th W vs. Phoenix 13 points (5-8 FG), 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks.
April 30th W vs. Phoenix 12 points (4-12 FG), 10 rebounds.
May 2nd L @ Phoenix 14 points (6-6 FG), 3 rebounds, 1 steal.
May 4th L @ Phoenix 17 points (8-9 FG), 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block

[Don Jacob]

Q: What do you think this team can do to get yourself to the next level?

KB: Well, we gotta get healthy for one. And then we gotta play together more. I think at times of adversity, we just split up. I think we gotta be more of a team unit and support everyone. Not just think you have to do it on your own.
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