FROM DENVER — He had swiveled on defense, bricked on offense, the aging point guard scuffling through a long night in this longest of springs.
But in the waning moments of the furious storm that was Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, Derek Fisher knew he had one thing that his younger teammates didn't.
Some would call it wisdom. Some would call it experience. Some would forgo any definition and just call it soul.
Whatever it was, Fisher gave it to the Lakers, dug deep through his three championship rings and gave it all, calling them together during a fourth-quarter timeout and shouting above the Pepsi Center madness in words they will remember all spring.
"Derek pulled us all in the huddle and just reminded everybody, this is what it's about," said Kobe Bryant. "This is where you're tested. To be a champion, you've got to respond."
Standing in front of his sagging body, their young hearts listened.
Soon, across the court, up in the arena, throughout the NBA landscape, eventually everyone else heard.
They weren't just words, they were fuel, sparking his team to blow away the Nuggets by two touchdowns in the final quarter and sprint away with a 103-97 theft that Bryant called a landmark.
"I rank this right up there with some of the biggest road wins we've had since I've been a Laker," he said.
Big, because they probably should have lost after trailing throughout the game, including by eight points at the start of the fourth quarter.
Bigger, because the Nuggets had won 16 consecutive games at home.
Huge, because the Nuggets had lost only three of 48 games that they'd led entering the fourth quarter.
Giant, because, let's face it, the Lakers lose this game, they probably lose the series.
Thus Fisher's speech, which he didn't want to repeat to the media, but was forced to because so many of his teammates were marveling about it.
"I told them, this was a moment in time when you can define yourself," Fisher said. "I told them, this was a moment when you can step into that destiny."
Fisher said he summed up the speech in a sentence.
"I told them, this is your moment," he said.
And, man, did they ever grab it, with Bryant unearthing more disbelief and Pau Gasol finding more Pau and Lamar Odom freaking out the Nuggets one more time.
