LA Daily News Blog:
Kwame showed up with a short haircut, without his trademark braided hair. He also spoke to the media before Kobe Bryant made his appearance, so again it illustrates the amount of confusion that was going on.
Here's the Kwame Brown quotes...
(Q: Are you concerned with Kobe not being here?)
He's still our teammate and we definitely hope he comes back. We're a better team with him than we are without him. So hopefully he and the team can iron it out and he can get back here and we can start winning some games.
(Q: Is it a case where maybe he has to get with his teammates and iron out some issues?)
No. Last year was a rocky year. We just have to get back in the gym and get our trust. I think it's more of a trust issue than a better-players issue. At times we looked very well, when we passed the ball and shared it. So we have to get back into that. We have to show him that we're going to hit that shot when he passes it up, when he's double-teamed, and we can gain some trust.
(Q: You said you had a little setback this summer. What happened?)
Guys that have been healthy all year and been playing all summer, they definitely move faster than a guy in his first week back. Trying to move as fast as they did, I hurt one of my tendons on the outside a little bit, but they just told me to slow down a little bit and take it a day at a time and maybe not play as many games as I did. It was fun getting back out there. I tried to play every game but I can't do that yet.
(Q: Sometimes they saw a new haircut indicates a change in attitude. Is that what's going on?)
Nah, it wasn't that dramatic. I just wanted a change. I just got tired of getting my hair braided. I don't know, maybe I'm too old for it or whatever. I just got tired of it.
(Q: Looking forward to the season?)
Oh yeah, looking forward to it. When you're out of basketball for as long as we were, and with the way we ended and all the problems that happened and the surgery that happened, you just look forward to getting back into it, especially myself, back on the court.
(Q: How do you guys improve defensively this year?)
We added Derek Fisher, and his on-ball defense is, I think, a lot better than Smush. He sets feisty picks. And that's not a shot at Smush. It's just that some players are better than others at different stuff. He's definitely a good on-ball defender and he's going to fight. We're going to go to the drawing board and hopefully work hard so we can bond and gel well together.
(Q: How long until you think you can get to 100 percent?)
I don't know. I'm just going to try to get back in playing shape. This is going to be my first time really playing consistent basketball since my injury, since my surgery, so it'll be a minute to get my timing down. Hopefully I can do so in the preseason and not deal with it in the regular season.
(Q: Do you know where Kobe Bryant is? Is he going to come out today?)
I have no idea. We thought he was going to be here. Everybody is supposed to be here, so I don't know where he is and I don't know what the reason is. I don't want to speculate. I'm sure he wanted to be here but maybe something came up.
http://lakersblog.latimes.com
Interview with Kwame
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