Interview With Scott Brooks: He Likes 'Em Tough

Thunder coach Scott Brooks joined DC radio host Mike Wise to answer a few questions about how his team is handling its business so far in the post-season.

Scott Brooks Radio Interview | Sports Radio Interviews

Be sure to read the entire interview. I have excerpted a few of his answers here:

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How did you and the team deal with the Metta World Peace incident?

"...That incident? That was unfortunate. That was something that did happen, but I will say this: Thank goodness that James got out of it healthy. That was a dangerous play. Unfortunately it happened, but we have moved on. We are just focused on getting him back. He was back a couple of games later and just continued to play good. We didn’t play great basketball at the end of the year, but we were still working some things out, but I thought we had a great series against Dallas."

How do you balance coaching the progression of Russell Westbrook?

"First of all I like toughness. I like guys [that are tough]. I can’t coach guys that are soft. I just can’t do it. I get so frustrated. I don’t want to be around them. I love toughness. I love guys that are going to compete. I love guys that are going to play with passion and are going to leave everything on the floor regardless of…you are not going to win every game, but at least give it everything you have and at the end of the game if they are the better team you shake their hand and move on. Russell? He plays hard on both ends and he leaves everything out. He gets a lot of criticism, but I love what he has done. He’s taken us to the playoff three years in a row as the point guard of our team. Kevin [Durant] has lead the league in scoring three times and he gets criticized about this a lot that he doesn’t pass the ball. Can he become a better passer? Absolutely. Our whole team can be a better passing team. That’s on me as I try to get this team to be a better passing team cause I know passing wins championships as much as defense does, but Kevin has lead the league in scoring three times. What do people want? Do they want him to lead it by scoring 10 more points a game? It doesn’t happen and he’s a great point guard and he’s only going to get better. He has another level or two of improvement."