Lakers Coach Says LA Needed Heat’s Andre Iguodala More Than Jamal Crawford

Althought heavily speculated that Andre Iguodala would head to the city of angles and would join the Los Angeles Lakers, Iguodala ended being traded to the Miami Heat last month.

Boy, the Lakers could have used the vet and Golden State Warriors NBA Champion.

Appearing on the Scoop B Radio Podcast at the beginning of the NBA season, ex-Laker and ex-Lakers coach, Tracy Murray revealed just how special Iguodala’s defensive skillset is.

He also talked about current NBA free agent, Jamal Crawford.

Check out a snippet of our Q&A below:

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Do the Lakers need Andre Iguodala or Jamal Crawford?

Tracy Murray: I would say Igoudala. They need that Championship, MVP, Finals experience. They need somebody that’s going to lock down defensively. Even though their defense is good, he can add to it. He needs somebody that’s not going to panic in situations during the playoffs. He’s not going to panic. Champions don’t panic. That’s the difference between the people that win and the people that don’t win…champions don’t panic. I saw the championship poise with Houston being a part of that team, I saw the championship poise with the Lakers being a part of that team – I wasn’t a part of their championship team but I still saw the poise they believed no matter what the situation is we’re gonna win. I mean we were down 34 to Dallas? – In the third quarter we had the biggest comeback in Laker history. Why? Because we believed that we were going to win the game regardless. You gotta have poise. We came back with Houston. We came back down 20 from Orlando in Game 1. Championship poise man…you can’t substitute that.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That’s deep. Scoop B Radio talking on the line with Tracy Murray. Tracy I knew that you and Lamond Murray are cousins because of the last name. How the heck are you and Allan Houston are cousins?

Tracy Murray: Well, we’re cousins through our dad’s side. There were some relations down the line – we’re not first or second cousins that’s a little bit further. Just through conversation, we found this out. While I was in the League. While we were both in the League. And we laughed about it, we were like — man the world is small…we were both McDonald’s All-Americans and didn’t know we were related. But through cousins talking to us, and talking to them, they threw out names and ‘that’s my cousin!’ – you know, that’s how we found out! A lot of people don’t know Clint McDaniel [Arkansas] from the National Championship Arkansas team, he was the 2-guard – he’s my cousin too! We have basketball pedigree in our family. It’s crazy.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I mean y’all could shoot the lights out, so it makes sense right? [laughs]

Tracy Murray: [laughs] and everybody could shoot, including my brother [laughs] it’s crazy, EVERYBODY could shoot the ball!