Denver Nuggets Coach Whines About The Media's Obsession With The Lakers, Then Claims He Doesn't Actually Care Seconds Later

Michael Malone is 51 years old and has coached over 700 NBA games yet appears to have just now realized that the national media is obsessed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Denver Nuggets head coach took time during his postgame press conference on Thursday night to complain about the media and looked rather foolish doing so.

The Nuggets took a 2-0 series lead in the Western Conference Finals on Thursday night with their 108-103 win over the Lakers. But Malone's mind was still focused on the reaction to Denver's win in Game 1 two days earlier.

READ: LAKERS WILL GET THE WIN (AND COVER) THEY NEED VS. NUGGETS IN GAME 3

A full 48 hours had passed and his team is two wins away from punching its ticket to the NBA Finals, yet he's spending time thinking about the media drumming up headlines.

“You win Game 1 of the playoffs and all everybody talked about was the Lakers,” Malone said. “Let’s be honest, the national narrative was, ‘Hey, the Lakers are fine. They’re down 1-0 but they figured something out.'"

"The narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn’t about Nikola. The narrative was about the Lakers and their adjustments. So you put that in your pipe, you smoke it, and you come back and we’re gonna go up 2-0.”

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone doesn't appreciate the national media's obsession with the Lakers. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Denver Nuggets Coach Contradicts Himself

Malone's 'put it in your pipe and smoke it' message is admittedly awesome. He's coached his team to a 2-0 series lead and is standing up for his franchise. Then, he squandered any legitimacy to his point.

After spending all of that time calling out the national media's narrative and obsession with the Lakers, he was asked if he thinks the narrative will now change with Denver up 2-0 in the series, and claimed he didn't care.

“I don’t care if it does,” Malone said, “because we know our narrative in that locker room. We know that we’re not done. We haven’t done anything yet."

Two seconds earlier he certainly cared about the narrative when he unprovokingly brought the topic up, but couldn't resist throwing out some coach speak to completely contradict himself.