Out of nowhere, Derek Fisher walked up to Mitch Kupchak, grabbed him by his shoulder and summoned him over for a quiet moment.
The Lakers had just beaten the Miami Heat in what marked one of the team's biggest wins of the season only 10 days ago. The team's effort reflected part of Fisher's plea this season to play without worrying what moves the front office will make. And his postgame conversation with the Lakers general manager revealed why his value remained more subtle than his dramatic clutch playoff shots or his timely defensive plays.
"Mitch, how are you doing?" Fisher asked. "We've been spending a lot of time talking about our team. I just want to know how you're doing."Kupchak recalled that conversation as evidence why trading Fisher on Thursday to the Houston Rockets for power forward Jordan Hill remained "hard to do." The benefits appeared obvious: the Lakers secured Cleveland guard Ramon Sessions, 25, for Jason Kapono, Luke Walton and their 2012 first-round pick, a move Kupchak said made the team "young and athletic." Both deals shed more than $9 million in players costs.
Still, Kupchak said he and executive Jim Buss constantly weighed during every trade proposal on whether Fisher's locker room clout still offset his declining skills. Fisher, in his 13 seasons with the Lakers when he won five championships, brought irreplacable locker-room leadership that extended from the last player on the roster to Kobe Bryant. "When you have a player who will take the time to do something like that, that's tough," Kupchak said. "But once again, as management, we have to try to separate that part. That's the hardest part of our job."
