The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-103, on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals. During Nuggets' coach Mike Malone's postgame press conference he called out the media for their chosen narrative after Game 1.
“A lot of our guys, to be honest, they may not admit this or not. You know, you win game one of the playoffs and all everybody talked about was the Lakers. Let’s be honest, that was a national narrative was, hey the Lakers were fine. They’re down 1–0 but they figured something out. No one talked about Nikola just had a historic performance. He’s got 13 triple-doubles now, third all-time. What he’s doing is just incredible, but the narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn’t about Nikola. The narrative was about the Lakers and their adjustments. So you know, you put that in your pipe, you smoke it, and you come back and you know what, we’re going to go up 2–0.”
It is kind of amazing that Malone would say this out loud. It seems insane that he's trying to help his team get to the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter-century and he's complaining about the B-block on First Take. To the point where he tells the media to put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Where are your priorities? Why do you care? And aren't you six wins short of talking shit about the haters and non-believers to the point that it won't come back to bite you in the ass? If he doesn't like this, wait until the Nuggets win the title and they're discussing the Lakers offseason moves on the A-block of Get Up the next morning.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Mike Malone Tells Media to 'Put That in Your Pipe' Because He Doesn't Like the Narrative.