Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni apologized Tuesday and called himself an “idiot” for criticizing the team’s fans one night earlier.
After a 117-90 road loss to the Phoenix Suns on Monday night, D’Antoni said that if Lakers fans “are discouraged, they should find another team to root for.” The Lakers are 13-15 this season, have lost six of their past 10 games and are missing injured guards Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Steve Blake.
“I was an idiot last night. I was out of my mind. I was ticked off,” D’Antoni said after Tuesday’s practice. “We didn’t play well. That was a game that we could’ve won and we didn’t do it. So I said some stuff I shouldn’t have said. That’s it. I just made a mistake.”
After Monday’s loss, D’Antoni said the Lakers players weren’t discouraged and were not going to give up.
“We have a team that needs to overachieve. We have a lot of injuries,” he said Tuesday. “We’re in a tough state, so we need everybody to get [healthy] quick. It’s going to take a whole village to get this done and that was the meaning. I just said it wrong and it came out wrong because I was agitated.
“But I apologize and I move on. But we need everybody to be behind these guys. They are going to play as hard as they can play.”