Luke Walton doesn't remember exactly which losing streak precipitated the call. His first season as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers was such a rough one, there were actually two eight-game losing streaks, a six-game losing streak and three other losing streaks of at least four games that could have sent him to one of his closest mentors for advice.
"I've always been very confident that the path we're on is the right path," Walton says. "But man, it gets cloudy at times when you're losing."
Self-doubt mushrooms. Young players who've known nothing but success can't process it at all.