Lakers’ Montrezl Harrell Defends Viral Postgame Comments

Montrezl Harrell made quite a statement in his postgame press conference Tuesday night. Guess what… He stands by his words.

Harrell and the Los Angeles Lakers played against Minnesota, and Harrell talked about the “jungle” and the big players at center.

“I don’t really believe in that ‘smaller’ stuff, man,” he told media members. “At the end of the day, if you believed in that, the elephant would be the king of the jungle, and that ain’t happening. … I come out here and put my hard hat on like everybody else on this team. Everybody in this league knows I don’t back down from anybody. I don’t care what your size is and I don’t care what you do.

“At the end of the day it goes back to our coverages. Our coaching staff was mixing up coverages every time KAT caught the ball. Marc [Gasol’s] coverages were different from mine. I don’t think we let him get comfortable. As far as that giving up size stuff, people who know me around this know I don’t back down from anybody.”

Montrezl Harrell stands by his postgame comments

The Lakers big man reposted his comments on Instagram and doubled up.

“I’m just speaking facts. It is what it is. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I won’t stop that for NOBODY!”

Harrell and the Los Angeles Lakers will play against the Brooklyn Nets Thursday night. Both teams deal with serious injuries. LA will play without big man Anthony Davis. The Nets will play without Kevin Durant. Brooklyn confirmed his status.

LeBron James, James Harden and Kyrie Irving will sure give fans some freat time. Everyone is so focused on this game. But, Lakers players aren’t too excited about the game. There’s nothing special about it.

“Honestly, I don’t really care,” Harrell said about the Nets game. “We go into every game with a game plan, know offensively, defensively what we want to do in order to win that game, and that’s going to be the same thing we’re going to have to do when we play on Thursday.”

Lakers players didn’t circle the game. They won’t put extra emphasis on the night. Harrell and the rest of the players are taking one game at a time. Everyone is still learning. Everyone is still growing and building chemistry.

Marc Gasol is ready to step up. He is averaging career-lows in minutes per game and usage percentage. However, he embraced the new role.