Delonte West addressed the media on a locker-room brawl with Von Wafer last week, saying it’s all good. Don’t know why you’re all worked up about it. It was no big deal that I just jumped a guy in the locker room.
Not sure I can swallow all of that, but are the quotes, via ESPN Boston.
“I’m competitive, he’s competitive, as long as it’s for the betterment of the team, there’s nothing wrong with healthy competition and pushing each other to get better. Things went a little far, but at the same time, we were able to move past that,” said West. “We’re professionals.”
“We’re competitive guys,” he said. “I read the reports and a lot of things were taken out of context, or facts were made up that were not true with how things played out. Guys get into scuffles, or whatever you want to call them. At the end of the day, we’re like brothers in here. We had a big laugh about it today with the help of [Shaquille O’Neal] and [Kevin Garnett]. At the end of the day, we’re trying to win. We’re competitive -- fiery guys in here -- but you gotta move on. We’re focused on the next game, the next challenge.”
Delonte was the instigator of the fight last Friday in the Celtics locker room, following a spirited 3-on-3. Reports later came out that this was spilled over from quotes in the paper about West that it was thought Wafer leaked. That part may or may not be true. What is true is that if West were let go or inactive Wafer would benefit most, and Wafer was not loved in past locker rooms.
He’s right this isn’t going to get out of hand — with a veteran led locker room including KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen Shaq and more, they are not going to let this fester and hurt the team. It will be — or was — dealt with.
It still feels like it is more than just a little on-the-court pushing spilled over, but it seems very done with now.
