What makes Derek Fisher so great?
Growing up during “The Lake Show” era of the 90’s, Nick Van Exel was Basketball God and nobody else even came close. Van Exel was one of my childhood heroes growing up, right up there next to Luke Skywalker, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rocky, and Ah-nold.
When Derek Fisher joined the Lakers in the same season as Kobe Bryant, (1996-1997) I immediately didn’t like him. In fact, for the first 4 seasons of his career, I hated Derek Fisher. Why? Because he was so uncool, he was so unsexy, and dare I say it, he sucked.
But throughout the years, my opinion of Fisher has changed. Part of the reason was because I grew up, and part of the reason was because Fisher changed as well. This is the story of how I learned to stop hating, and love the Fish.