Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to write anything about Derek Fisher.  It breaks my heart that I can’t pay tribute to one of my favorite players.  That said, there is one thing I cannot let pass without comment:  Don’t believe this “It’d be hard to bench Derek Fisher, and that’s why we traded him” propaganda.  Make no mistake about it, that’s precisely what that is - propaganda. 

No one propagating that myth has any evidence with which to make that claim.  Why would Fisher have an issue with coming off the bench?

Because some guy on some other team got mad once or twice, or even 100 times?  We don’t use the transitive property like that in sports.  Just because LA beat Cleveland, and Cleveland beat Toronto, doesn’t mean LA will beat Toronto.

When it was time to bench Lamar Odom, nobody said, “You gotta trade this guy!!!  He’ll never come off the bench!!!”  They gave him the choice.  He chose to accept the role, and he made the most of it.  Not only did the Lakers win back-to-back titles with Odom coming off the bench, but he won the Sixth Man of the Year award last year.  How’s that for accepting a role?

No one was afraid to ask Fisher to sit on the bench when Chris Paul was headed to town.

Read Andrew Ungvari’s (@drewunga) fantastic piece - Chronological Derek Fisher Obituary - which details Fisher’s career of selflessness and team play:

September 30, 1996 – Just before the start of the preseason, the Lakers sign Byron Scott after being away from the team for two seasons. Fisher voluntarily gives Scott his old No. 4 jersey and opts for the No. 2 instead. The first of what will become a career defined by selfless acts.

I didn’t know that story, but it didn’t surprise me.  Ungvari then listed the multiple occasions Fisher vacillated between starter and bench support throughout his career, each time without a word:

February 21, 1999 – With Fisher in the starting lineup, the Lakers start the season 6-3. Fisher is replaced by Harper. Fisher doesn’t say one word about the demotion.

December 8, 1999 – In his fifth game back after returning from his injury, Kobe Bryant is inserted back into the starting lineup alongside Harper. Fisher is again demoted and once again doesn’t utter a peep.

Now, please, tell me why Derek Fisher wouldn’t have accepted a different role on this team.

Ungvari lists reason after reason for why Fisher is, and always will be, among the Laker greats, but those are just the ones we know about.  The team meetings, the pep talks, the teaching - it all happened behind closed doors.  We didn’t see that on television.

There is no statistic for leadership.

Sure, Fisher was a young kid the first time he agreed to play off the bench, but now he’s older, and wiser.  Yes, Mike Brown is light years away from being Phil Jackson, in both respect and player management, so perhaps a demotion would have been a tougher pill to swallow for Fish, but I say this without equivocation:  Derek Fisher earned the right to accept or reject that role on his terms.  And he earned the right to know the franchise was shopping him in deals.  He was the Lakers’ team captain, for crying out loud.

Reports say Derek Fisher will sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder this evening.  I wish him well.  He’s going to make Kevin Durant a better player.  He’s going to teach Russell Westbrook a lot.  I’m positive.  I’d be happy if Fish won a sixth ring (shhhh…one more than Kobe).

But no matter what happens from here until the end of his career, to me, Derek Fisher is a Laker.

@gotem_coach