Lakers’ Antawn Jamison unhappy about being benched

Antawn Jamison has seen just about everything in his NBA career.

“Not this,” he said Friday after sitting out a fifth consecutive game via the dreaded DNP-Coach’s Decision.

“Fifteen years,” the Lakers forward said, recapping his career. “My only thing is let me know why. I don’t think you go from starting and 30-something minutes to not in the rotation whatsoever. And not explaining to me what exactly happened, that’s the toughest thing. There’s nothing you can do but be positive and support your teammates. The only reason I came here was they said I was going to play and to win a championship.”

Jamison was signed by the Lakers in July for the veteran’s minimum of $1.4 million and a one-year contract.

He seemed to find his game shortly after Mike Brown was replaced by Coach Mike D’Antoni. Jamison had 33 points against Denver on Nov. 30 and then averaged 12.3 over the next four games.

His playing time and production dwindled steadily from there, bringing him to where he is now — next to rookie Robert Sacre at the end of the Lakers’ bench.

Earlier in the day, D’Antoni said Jamison would “probably” get back into the rotation.

“Everybody gets another chance and stuff,” he said. “We’re playing nine guys and I’m really liking Metta [World Peace]. We don’t want to lose Antawn because he does what he does. We’ll see. Antawn’s ready to roll if we need him.”

It was assumed his stats would drop after he averaged 17.2 points last season for Cleveland. It wasn’t assumed he would sit on the bench for entire games.

“There’s a competitor in me that wants to compete and I know I can help the team,” Jamison said. “Whenever I get answers, I guess I’ll feel more better about the situation but nothing has been told to me why nothing has happened or that I did anything wrong.

“DNPs for the first time in my career. I have not had a conversation with [D’Antoni] about anything about the situation.”

Jamison is averaging 7.2 points for the Lakers in 25 games, five of which he started.

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