<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was only a matter of time before I got to the Zen Disaster, instilling in Phil Jackson Page 2 techniques for motivation, Jackson talking to reporters recently about his team and saying, "They stink." Let's be serious, there really can't be any other explanation about how the Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night in Staples Center, the surprise now is why it took Jackson so long to embrace the Page 2 method of spurring our local heroes on to better results. When I asked him about it before the game, he said he had just decided to get tougher with his players, and while he never mentioned our recent series of pregame chats designed to toughen him up, he said that he's no longer interested in "protecting [his players] from their own insecurities" with the media. "Fresh meat for Page 2," I said, and if all it takes to get a big-time effort from the Lakers is to tell them they stink, I can hold off writing about hockey and horse racing for a while. It's not like it's a secret that Smush Parker stinks. Sasha Vujacic might stink if he was still playing college basketball. Lamar Odom stinks sometimes, and that stinks. Kwame Brown stinks all the time. And just in case Devean George hasn't been paying attention the last six years, I personally went to him before the game with the Pistons, and told him he stinks. He disagreed, and I think that stinks. "You take [my performance] as being inconsistent, I take it as basketball," George said. "A lot of people measure whether you're playing good or not based on how many shots you make." Even his explanations stink. I've maintained for some time now that a player with George's potential should have nailed down a starting position ? giving the Lakers a consistent second- or third-scoring threat to go with Bryant. Even more so this season, the one in which the Lakers have been desperate to find someone to ease the dependency on Bryant, George has managed only to entrench himself as an inconsistent sub. "I'm not going to play how you think I should," he said, and then he went out and played like I think he should, scoring a pair of baskets sandwiched around a steal in the fourth quarter to pull the Lakers away from the Pistons. But you know what's going to happen now. Everyone is going to praise the Lakers for beating Detroit, going overboard and probably gushing about the play of Odom & Co., and here we've got San Antonio coming to town Monday. Someone has to keep telling our guys they stink, or they won't have a chance. All I can promise is that I'll do my best.</div> Source Even though George is denying his bad play, I like the fact that he has confidence in his game. He proved he can play against Detroit.
I never expected much out of George, when he shoots a three, I'm confident that it will go in. If he hits 2-3 timely shots per game, then I'm very happy with that.
