"Tell me, why else would somebody do it? If a guy's hurt, and then they knock him after he's hurt, why else would they go after him?"

Q.: Because he's not up-front about things?

A.: "Everybody knew he was hurt. I never said one time that he was here that — he should be playing and he wasn't hurt. I never said one thing about it, and I'm with these guys every day.

"That's what I saw with a player that I'm dealing with, and I've tried, if a player's hurt, I've never asked him to play hurt. I realize that circumstances — it's tough for us to win. It's always been tough when you lose a good player — (or) just a player."

Q.: So do you have somebody now who's hurt and trying to play through it?

A.: "No. Not that I know of. I mean, there is always gonna be some nagging injuries that players have. But there's a big difference, and I also know that. But once you put your uniform on, I expect you to do the best you can — and I'll try to take care of the rest of it. I haven't always batted 100 percent, I know, in this business, but that's always been a concern of mine.

"Because some guys that I played with, (I know) the injury that they have (that kept them from playing) — and I know somebody else might have the same injury (and played through it). But there's a difference in people. Just like there was a difference in me. I played because the only thing I could do was rebound and defend, and I played because of that. I didn't play because I could score 20 points a game, so I had to do the things that I could do well in order to try to play — and then the rest of it was kind of gravy.

"And that's what you have with a lot of players. We try to recognize it. We don't always do a good job. And, in the meantime, sometimes, we upset 'em. And that's the other thing they deal with a little bit. But I don't think it's from a standpoint that we want to see a guy fail. We try to get their attention, we try to get them to pick it up another notch, because we see more in them sometimes than maybe they do."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com