Mike Brown shrugs off criticism, says he has belief in the offence he is running – NBA News
The Los Angeles Lakers are beginning to realize the pressure and constant attention a basketball franchise receives when it comes into the spotlight owing to a list of talented players. The Miami Heat were on the receiving end of much of the criticism over the past two seasons because they were the superstar team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. However, the Lakers took that title when they added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash over the summer to a line-up that already included Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. And the Lakers are now feeling the wrath of fans as well as critics and analysts.
The Lakers have started the season rather poorly, after being expected to over-run almost all other teams in the NBA because of the pool of talent the team is boasting at the moment. They lost their first game to the Dallas Mavericks and followed that with a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. And as predicted by many before the season started, the Lakers are finding it difficult to form team chemistry and flow, particularly with the new Princeton offence they are running.
Charles Barkley joined in on the criticism in a recent episode of “Inside the NBA” on TNT, saying that he wants his accountants from Princeton, not his offence. However, Lakers Head Coach Mike Brown seems unfazed by all the criticism and talked to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News where he said that he was not worried about the kind of start his team had witnessed, and had full conviction in the Princeton offence.
“I’ve been criticized by those guys before. It’s okay. The first thing is with our offense, every time down the floor — and if they want to, they can call Steve Nash and ask him — Steve Nash has the right to play pick and roll if he wants to. He has said it himself that he doesn’t feel like he’s as burdened because he doesn’t have to make every play for everybody all the time with what we’re trying to do. He can give it up and still have a chance to get it back,” said Brown.
The Lakers are going to face a lot more criticism before the season is over simply because they asked for the constant media attention when they gathered four of the best players in the NBA in one team. The only way for them to escape from the constant commentary is to either win a lot of games or to tune out of whatever everyone is saying and focus only on the season.
Tags: