We'll have some video later in the afternoon, but in the meantime you can kill the rest of your Friday with some quotes from Phil Jackson, who met with the media in El Segundo this afternoon ahead of Monday's media day. Clean-shaven and (relatively) spry, PJ seemed eager to get going on what looks to be an interesting season. Not that he was dancing a jig or anything, but that's not really how he rolls.
You can watch casually once the film is up ... until then, we'll all have to make do with the printed word. A lot of ground is covered, but given the serious jones for anything meaty, I figure you can absorb it. Some excerpts:
On upcoming season:
"We're excited about our year. A lot of the same players back again. There haven't been a whole lot of changes. Obviously Andrew (Bynum) coming back is a change, is a difference. We think that we're healthy coming into this training camp. Obviously we have some things that are going on -- Luke is still recovering a little bit from an operation, he'll be a little slow -- but for the most part we're relatively healthy, as opposed to last year, when we had players who couldn't compete right away. We think some of our players have played probably a little too much basketball this summer, with Kobe and Pau (at the Olympics), so we'll generate a camp around their limited work, at least this first week."
On Kobe's deciding against surgery on the torn ligament in his pinkie finger:
"I think it was a good idea. Regardless of the correction that might have been done by the surgery, he's still susceptible (to injury). I don't think there's any more of a risk than there would be if he had surgery, then got his finger caught in a jersey again. There's the same risk factor. There's probably going to be a little less strength there, or whatever, but he's going to be fine. He's played all summer with it. I wasn't happy with the way he shot the ball particularly, but I think he's adjusted to all that."
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