After the Los Angeles Clippers buried the Lakers with a flurry of electrifying dunks in their first of two preseason games on Monday night, Lakers coach Mike Brown called out his team and criticized their poor defensive play. He even called out Kobe Bryant, saying he "was as guilty as everyone else" for not contesting long range shots by the Clippers.
The five-time NBA champion responded on Tuesday, welcoming his coach's criticism and saying he would be upset if Brown held back.
"We're here to be coached. I'm here to be coached just like everybody else, you know what I mean? It's important for everybody to understand that. If I make a mistake, it's the coach's job to correct that," Bryant said. "You can't be sensitive or a baby. You're here to win. That's his job. I would upset if he was just letting me skate through things. You make mistakes, it's the coach's job to point that out. If he can't point that out to me, he has no chance of pointing it out to anybody else."
Bryant also said that Brown's coaching style hasn't matched what he heard about him prior to getting the Lakers head coaching job.
"What I heard about him was he was a pushover, doesn't say what he's thinking. I haven't seen that at all. He's been the complete opposite," he said.
Despite being the most successful coach in the history of the Cavaliers, Brown was fired by Cleveland after they failed to reach the NBA Finals two years in a row.
However, Brown now faces a similar challenge after moving on from one superstar, LeBron James, to another with Kobe Bryant when the Lakers hired him following Phil Jackson's retirement. Other than Kobe and L.A's two big men, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Lakers are somewhat thin everywhere else on the roster.
Earlier this month, NBA Commissioner David Stern vetoed a three-team trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, Gasol to the Rockets and Lamar Odom to the New Orleans Hornets. Feeling disrespected, Odom requested a trade and got his wish when the Lakers sent him to the reigning NBA champs, the Dallas Mavericks.