If there is anyone who knows how hard it is to repeat as an NBA champion, it is Derek Fisher.
After all, he’s been there before. And as Fish explained recently, it’s not a simple task.
"It’s just not easy to do what we are trying to do," No. 2 cautioned while discussing the season with reporters after practice earlier in the week."The target is even bigger on your back when you are the defending champion. We’re finding it out as we close out the season."
Fish was referring to the Lakers’ recent troubles in the win column. The truth, as Derek went on to say, is that things will get even tougher from here on out.
"It’s just not easy to try and do what we are trying to do. That’s the reason that, as dominant as San Antonio has been over the past ten years, they’ve never won back-to-back."
Even though Fish ran point for a three-peat early last decade, he knows that that accomplishment isn’t commonplace.
"What we did early in the decade, from 2000 to 2001 to 2002, there weren’t anymore repeat champions for the rest of the decade. This is not something where you just wake up and decide ‘we want to win another championship.’ "
But Derek knows it’s the stretches like these, when the going gets rough, that make the feeling of winning it all that much sweeter.
"When you are standing on that podium, and you realize you’ve won the championship, the emotion comes from remembering when it seemed like you just weren’t quite gonna get there."
To watch D-Fish talk more about the degree of difficulty that comes along with defending the title, click here.
NEXT UP
One of the four teams fighting for the West’s No. 2 seed is looming on the horizon for Los Angeles on Thursday night.
Five games back, the Denver Nuggets can’t catch the Lakers for the one seed, but they can remind the Lakers of what it’s going to take to come out of the conference in May.
Tip-off of that Thursday night throwdown is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Pepsi Center in the Mile-High City and the game can be seen nationwide on TNT.
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Lakers’ Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher debate parallels between championship teams (LA Times, April 2, 2010)
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2010/04/lakers-phil-jackson-and-derek-fisher-debate-parallels-between-championship-teams.html