Below is Pau Gasol’s reaction to Mike Brown’s firing

There’s nothing we could as players except go out and perform and do our best to turn this around. I feel bad for Mike. There’s been a lot going on regardless. This is my third time with the coach being fired when I was on a team. It’s not pleasant to go through. You feel bad for the coach and his family and the position he’s in.

On what the team needs

That’s something ownership and management will have to decide in getting somebody to help us lead in the right direction and help us perform and deliver and take us to the direction we want to be in, which is to get a championship run.

On who told them the news.

Mitch told us this morning. It’s something you can talk to Mitch about and see what he says to you guys. He told us the decision was made and we didn’t have a good start. This team is built to win. That’s what we’re all here to do.

On if the players lost faith in Brown

I don’t think we lost faith at any moment. I think we believed in what we were trying to do and we also understood it was going to take a little bit of time for us to do things the way they should’ve been done as far as our game. It wasn’t happening as fast as we all wanted to. There were different things that didn’t play in our favor.

On if this sends a message

It’s a pretty direct message to all of us and there’s no messing around. It’s time for us to step it up and have respect and appreciation for how hard Mike worked and how much he strived for this team to do well. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working and a decision was made.

On why the team struggled

It’s a combination of things. The preseason didn’t go well. Going 0-8 is not a good sign. You have a couple injuries. Steve got hurt and Kobe hasn’t been able to practice for 3-4 weeks even though he’s playing well. The system takes a little bit of time and takes time to gel. Right now, it’s really no more to look at. We have to go out and perform. Keep it simple.

On if team has to start over again.

We’re going through what we’re going through. It’s a lot to digest and a lot to take in one day but we have to keep our mind focused on the game and do what we do best. We’ll see what happens next. It’s out of our hands. It’s surprising for it to happen at this point. But at the same time we’re 1-4 and at the bottom of the Western Conference with one of the best rosters in the league. That’s it.

If Princeton offense will end

I have no idea. I don’t know. Everything just happened. We’ll see. Everything is fresh. We’ll settle down. At the same time, we have to step up and do our job and make sure we turn this around as a group and unit and being positive and supporting each other and doing as much as we can to be successful.

On Bernie Bickerstaff

I know Bernie being around and he’s been a successful coach in the NBA and an experienced coach. We don’t know how long he’ll be an interim coach. We’ll take it one day at a time. Our goal right now is beating Golden State.

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