Kings Blog and Q&A

In a minute, I will get to the Jim Les/Scotty Brooks connection here, but by way of background: Oklahoma City coach Scotty Brooks made an extremely gutsy (and rare) coaching move when he benched starting point guard Russell Westbrook for the entire fourth quarter of the Thunder's 2 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Westbrook, an immense talent who is still learning the balance between creating shots for himself and creating for others, was yanked after he committed a foul and his fourth turnover near the end of the third quarter. As he walked toward the bench, Brooks patted him on the back, but could be seen on camera telling his young star to "pass the ball." A visibly angry Westbrook responded - not clear what he said - and continued talking as he took a seat. Meanwhile, OKC held off the Mavs with Eric Maynor running the point.

So back to Les/Brooks: I finally caught up with new UC Davis men's basketball coach Jim Les a few minutes after the game. After we chatted about the Aggies for an upcoming column, I asked his thoughts about the decision by Brooks, another undersized point guard who made a nice living bouncing around the league. (Les gets props as both a former Kings reserve and Monarchs assistant).

"As a coach, you have to be true to yourself and true to your team," said Les. "You're not coaching one guy, you're coaching a team. It looked in that instance, he (Westbrook) wasn't willing to accept the coaching and stepped out of bounds. Absolutely, that's what it looked like. But if you have a problem, you want to express it in the locker room, not on the stage, not at that time. Scotty sent a message to his team. And there is no bigger message than coming out of there with a 'W.' ... I think coaches everywhere are smiling a little bit."

And Kevin Durant says ....

Any potential locker room issues resulting from the Westbrook benching were quashed by Kevin Durant mere seconds seconds after the buzzer. In an on-court interview with ESPN's Doris Burke, Durant quickly said he "wasn't surprised" by his coach's decision. Instead, the league's scoring leader praised Maynor for his floor game and for "getting everyone involved." In NBA parlance, that is a not-so-subtle dig at his starting point guard.

When the car gets dirty ...

Now that Les is back in the neighborhood, we should tell him about his former opponent's side business - Brooks and his family run Dribbles Car Wash in Manteca. Les and Brooks never played on the same NBA team, by the way, but also shared experiences in the World Basketball League and the now defunct Continental Basketball League.