Fox: ‘. . . We’re Just Fooling Ourselves’

In an almost-empty locker room late Saturday, about an hour after a devastating home loss to the Golden State Warriors, Rick Fox dipped his feet in a bucket of ice and let his words do the boiling.

How could he explain a team with championship hopes turning in such a wretched performance?

“See, we’re not that good,” Fox said. “I don’t know how many times we’re going to continue to fool ourselves with, ‘the most talented team in the league,’ ‘win a championship.’ . . .

“Until we really realize where we’re at as a team right now, we’re just fooling ourselves. I mean, we proved that we’re no better than Golden State.”

Fox, who has been the main Laker of the recent past to try to punch past knee-jerk excuses, said he knows it isn’t always appreciated.

“I always seem to be the guy . . . What is it, shoot the messenger?” Fox said. “I’m bringing the truth and nobody wants to hear it, I guess.

“But I can’t live in a lie. Because the only way you’re going to change and get better is when you realize where you’re at, as opposed to thinking you’re somewhere else. We just think we’re somewhere else . . .

“We think we can go out and not execute our offense and give a half-effort defensively . . . and think it’s going to pay off.

“We keep playing like this, won’t be long before they quit talking about championships for us or how talented we are. They’ll be talking about how we’re an under-achieving, heartless team. How long before that, you know?

“This is ridiculous, because there really is no excuse. That’s why I can’t sit here and tell you, ‘Well, we’ll get it together.’ We’re supposed to have it together . . .

“Hey, you miss shots, sure. But the defensive end, you control. We’re 22nd in the league defensively. I mean, that’s just heart, desire and working hard.”

The reality is in the response of the Great Western Forum crowd, Saturday night and at previous home struggles (the Lakers are 12-5 at home, 2-3 over their last five Forum appearances), Fox said.

“I’m not saying anything the fans don’t know,” Fox said. “They know this is not what they want to see, not what they expect to see.

“Look at tonight--they were booing. They were booing because they know this was BS. . . . Because they read what we say. And what do we say? ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to win a championship, we just need to put it together, we just need some games, some time.’

“We keep throwing it out, throwing it out . . . We’ve got to quit making excuses. First, it was the coach; then it was the distractions; then it was Dennis [Rodman]; then it was something else . . . ‘Well, we had to get adjusted,’ ‘Well, well . . . ‘

“Pretty soon, we’ll be making excuses when we get knocked out of the playoffs. ‘Well, it was the lockout year’ . . . ‘Well, we never really got in tune’ . . .

“I can give you a bunch of excuses. So can a lot of other teams. And those are the teams that never go anywhere.”