Current Oklahoma City guard and former Lakers fan favorite Derek Fisher has not changed his plans to retire after this season, although several of his teammates, including Kevin Durant, suggested they may attempt to convince him to extend his career. With that in mind, Sunday likely marked Fisher’s last game at Staples Center, and Lakers fans gave him a much deserved warm welcome. The memories of five NBA championships, the unforgettable 0.4 shot, and a bond between Fisher and Kobe Bryant, that no other teammate has been able to surpass, has left a mark on the history of the franchise and will forever be imprinted in the hearts of Lakers fans around the globe.
That imprint will also live on through through Bryant and Fisher, whose mutual appreciation for one another has taken it’s highest form.
This past September, in an an interview with a Yahoo! affiliate in Dubai, Bryant said Derek Fisher has always been his “all-time favorite teammate.” Does Derek Fisher feel the same way? Fisher explained that he has separate “compartments” when evaluating his relationships with teammates over the years. There’s a compartment in which personal and social relationships come into play, but Bryant definitely ranks number one in the basketball compartment.
“Kobe, by far is my favorite teammate from a basketball perspective, in terms of what we were able to accomplish,” Fisher told LakersNation.com. “It would be a disservice to guys like Devean George, Luke Walton, Horace Grant, guys that I really got close to over the years in terms of being friends to automatically put Kobe at the top of that list. We definitely shared some special years and I miss him everyday, and I just want him to get healthy and get back on the court as soon as possible.”
Fisher also smiled when he described his Laker career along Bryant as simply, a “lifetime.” Fisher did not hesitate to state that he knows Bryant will be back at his best, very soon. As for Fisher, he wasn’t yet ready to reflect on his Lakers career, but he did say that it was a great feeling to know he’d accomplished a few things with the Lakers that very few teams in the history of the NBA have accomplished.
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