A.: "I've never believed in lighting fires under anybody. I think a basketball player in this league knows that he's getting paid to play, and he's expected to perform at the highest level he has. Now, I understand problems off the floor. I understand sickness. I understand family problems. I understand things that go on with players that people don't know about. And when guys have bad games, I don't talk about it. I don't think that's fair. People will try to pry into everything that you do, try to find out something that's going on. And I've always felt that those things, you don't discuss it if a guy's got a ... He's got a right to have a bad game, if something's going wrong. And that will happen with players once in a while. ... When maybe some of those things come up, what do you do? You just keep playing. You have to work through it."

Q.: Is that a reference to Carlos Boozer's 3-for-16 shooting in Portland?

A.: "No. I think that can happen with anybody. Those things come up. And I get on the players. I get on the players when they're not performing. That's part of my job. They think that sometimes I'm trying to mistreat 'em. And I got on my kids. It wasn't mistreating 'em. (It was) trying to teach them that in order to do better sometimes you have to focus a little harder, and you have to fight through it. Because not everybody is gonna give you something.

"We're in a world of give and take. The players are giving a lot, and they take a lot. They're expected to perform well every day, whether they're sick or whatever's wrong — on the outside. In my situation, I hope they can play well and go through that — but not all the time can they do that. And I understand that."

Q.: When guys do know it's their job to perform, yet they still don't, what then?

A.: "Go on about your business. We're not gonna cancel the season. That's the simple part of it.

"I had a player a few years ago who went to a funeral, and was gone for a long period of time. What am I gonna do about it? I don't question a player. I didn't question Boozer whenever he missed all those games (season before last). And I thought he was hurt. He was legitimately hurt, and that's the way I felt about it. But he still took criticism, which was very unfair. And it was criticism that people shouldn't have to take. But, you know, people feel like they've got to say something, and knock somebody because it makes them feel better.