May 10, 2011 Andrew Bynum (11.3 points per game, regular season, 9.4 rebounds, 2.0 blocked shots) The center began his session Tuesday by apologizing for his flagrant foul against the Mavs' J.J. Barea. "(My actions in Game 4) don't represent me, my upbringing, this franchise or any of the Laker fans out there who want to watch us or succeed. I'm just glad he wasn't seriously injured." Bynum said he expected to be suspended at the start of next season — and he was. The NBA suspended Bynum for the first five games of the 2011-12 season for giving Barea a hard shot with his elbow. Bynum was ejected, and Barea was not seriously injured. Bynum also was fined $25,000 by the league Tuesday for angrily pulling off his jersey on his way to the locker room after being ejected. After general manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson told him what he should work on this summer — "more moves on offense" — Bynum addressed his infamous "trust issues" comments after Game 1: "I just believe we were out there not all doing it together and that has to do with trust. It's when you're not willing to buckle down and work with your teammates, that's trust." Bynum said the team was still very close off the court — "we love each other" — but on the court it just never clicked for the Lakers, especially defensively. "We did a great thing getting to the Finals three years in a row and winning twice," he said. "This year we got beat by the better team." Ron Artest (8.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals) The forward, up next, said he feels the sweep by Dallas will be a motivating factor for the team next season. Embarrassment can do that. He said he's more than happy "to go to battle again with this team" and that some rest will help everyone. "Let me say that I'm really proud of this team," Artest said. "We won two in a row and we still have a very good team. Muhammad Ali was the greatest — he lost. Manny Pacquiao has lost. The Lakers lost. We can come back just like they did." Speaking of hits, Artest said his foul on Barea was not intentional, that Barea is 5-feet-2 (actually 6-0) and his face ran into his fist. Yes, he really said it. Shannon Brown (8.7 points, 1.2 assists, 1.9 rebounds) The guard seemed the most distraught Laker so far, saying he actually apologized to Jackson during his exit meeting. "We didn't want to send him out that way," Brown said. "It was frustrating and disappointing. It still hurts." He said Jackson expressed frustration as well but told Brown to never stop fighting, to never give up. Brown, who has a player-option on the remaining year of his contract, said he'd love to be back with the Lakers. He agreed about Bynum's "trust-issues" comments, saying Bynum was talking about the team not executing on offense or defense, not problems in the locker room. Brown will try to put the season behind him quickly. "Man, I just want to take a vacation with my wife, enjoy my summer right now. Hope (the lockout) doesn't happen, but I want to just relax for a bit." Luke Walton (1.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists) The forward said he had a heart-to-heart with Jackson about his role and lack of playing time this season. "I felt like I had to get some stuff off my chest that had been bothering me for most of the season," said Walton, who averaged 9.0 minutes in the 54 games he played. "I felt that I was healthy this year, and Coach knew I could do more to contribute than he let me. He told me it was a speed issue, me not playing, that the second unit had to pick up the pace when it came into the game, and that wasn't my style." Walton said he chose to address the matter because Jackson means so much to him as a coach and a person. "He's a great, great man and has taught me so much, that I didn't want to miss this opportunity," Walton said. "With him retiring and probably going back to Montana, I wanted to make sure to express to him how I felt things could have been different." Walton was also the first player to admit there might have been some complacency issues with this edition of the Lakers. "We went to the Finals three years in a row, won it the last two, and maybe because we have Drew. Kobe and Pau (Gasol) we thought that all we had to do was get them the ball and they'd score. When we moved the ball around and pounded it inside and fought for the best shot, we were pretty much unbeatable. It just didn't happen enough." Walton said if the Lakers keep the triangle offense, current assistant Brian Shaw would be the logical choice to replace Jackson as head coach. "That's going to be really interesting," Walton said. Derek Fisher (6.8 points, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals) "We were set up for a fall." the Lakers' veteran point guard said after his meetings with Kupchak and Jackson. "My thoughts are aplenty, and most of them not good. "I just really never imagined being in this situation. This one definitely hurts. I think we all feel that way. Very disappointing. This one will be with us for a while." Fisher, who has been involved in five NBA championships, said the Lakers' European training camp added to a lack of focus that became a problem throughout the season. "Even Phil said it wasn't conducive to preparing to be a world championship club," Fisher said. "Plus the fact that we've played over a hundred games a year the last four years. It all led to the fall." For Fisher, the issue wasn't the matter of getting swept but how they lost and when. "I don't think I'd feel much different if we'd have won a couple games," he said. "We got beat in the conference semifinals. This feels worse than losing in the Finals in '08. Losing in the Finals has its own batch of disappointment and frustration, but losing this early is a totally different animal to wrestle with. For myself and a lot of our guys, though, it will ultimately become a positive. "Often times that happens when you take that look in the mirror that you didn't think you'd have to take. We've been forced to take a close look in the mirror and I think we're man enough to do that." When the Lakers were knocked out early in the 2003 playoffs by San Antonio after their three-peat, they bounced back the next season with another trip to the Finals, ultimately losing to Detroit 4-1. Fisher was asked if the Lakers can make that jump again in 2011. "Yes. I'll take the same exact group of guys and lace 'em up again (with that team)," he said. "We'd get the job done. That's what I believe. It can and will happen. There's no disrespect to Dallas or any of the teams that are left. They all deserve the respect and amount of credit due them for how far they've gone, but with the same group of guys, there's some things we can do as players to be better. Those will be things we discuss amongst our group. Internal things, that no matter who the new coach is, how we can do things better. We totally lost sight of that, which is typical of success. Sometimes you think you have it figured out, but things change to quickly these days. You have to continually adapt and adjust, and we didn't do that so well. "But it won't be long before were back out there, getting ready for next season." Pau Gasol (18.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists) "Obviously, I'm not very happy that I wasn't able to perform at my usual level," said the Lakers big man, the focal point for criticism this postseason. "But, obviously, I'm not playing alone." Pau said an early exit from the playoffs after two straight titles was a time for serious reflection. "It's a time to analyze, sit back and see what actually happened out there," he said. "Not just for this last stretch, but throughout the year. I think we have to look deeply into how we started, the stretches we had, the ups and downs, the meaning of them and what we could have done better individually and as a team. Anything short of winning the championship would have been tough (to deal with)." "But the doubts started in Game 1 (against Dallas) when we gave that one away and how we let it get away from us. That was pretty significant." As were Pau's perceived off-the-court troubles. Gasol denied he was injured during the playoffs, saying his back discomfort was just a matter of the aches and pains of the season rather than a new injury that occurred late in the season. And then there was an Internet report concerning a possible rift with a teammate over an alleged fight between Gasol's girlfriend and the teammate's wife. "There's always going to be plenty of stories, playing here for the best franchise in the world," Gasol said. "Now it's time to stand up for yourself. I understand that it's part of the deal, whether it's fair or not. This kind of stuff, you can brush it off. What makes me angriest is me not playing well enough to help my team accomplish its goal." Did the stories hurt him? "Sure. It's not just unfair to me, what's been said, but my girlfriend has been taking hits. And the stories are absolutely false," he said. "But the only thing I can do is answer specific questions about the matter if I consider it necessary. That's what I'm doing now. The other way is by playing the game and performing the way I can." "Nowadays, you start a story on social networks and it becomes true. It just takes people to comment about it. But that's why I can't cave into that, waste my time with that. But if (you're) asking me directly if it's true, no, it's not true. Plain and simple. "Hopefully I'll learn from (the on-and-off court) stuff and come back even stronger next year. Because we're done early, we can come back with a kind of clean (slate) next year and try to get back to where we were."
