Finally, he snapped out of his malaise. Still in his drenched game uniform, West opted to skip his shower and started putting on his dress clothes for the bus. We waited for West to talk to the media, and he began speaking as he dressed without showering. He was apologetic and regretful about his mistakes. West needed emotional support, but he didn’t receive any, not on this professional level where there is little sympathy for millionaires who lose difficult games. Wally Szczerbiak, a Sonics teammate who came over to Seattle from Boston, looked at me and said, “You see what the [berating] coaching does to him?”
