As a coach, I want players to challenge me, to question me and ask why we're doing a certain thing, so they feel that they're taking ownership.
Everyone who watches me play knows I am an honest player. play the game as honestly as I can. If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do.
People in general misunderstand me. I'm very aware of the stereotype that comes with being a basketball player. But I'm well-rounded. I'm cultured. It's funny: When I speak, people are like, "Wow! You can really talk. " I'm like, "What did you expect?"
I'm very fond of piano players.
What you specifically teach is what your players will do best.
One thing I learned in the NBA is that the No. 1 job of a general manager is to keep his job. They are only 30 positions where you make millions and hang around with basketball players all day.
Players like to know that they've discovered things that even the designers didn't know were in the game.
I have yet to be in a game where luck was involved. Well-prepared players make plays. I have yet to be in a game where the most prepared team didn't win.
Partisans present some of the most refreshing music I've heard in a long while, uncompromising, very well written and very well played. It demands serious attention. I hear in these players a sense of common purpose and resolve, and a strong command of a dialect uniquely suited to this music. It's heartening to hear music that looks to find its own particular place.
As far as being a 'player's player,' you've only got to go to Nashville or Argentina and you can forget about it. The world is full of amazing guitar players, and you know it, and I know it. . . it's a humbling experience.
In the real world of competition, the players want to compete and they want to compete at the very highest level.
I also think there's too many players who say the same boring answers, they don't even have to turn up to interviews because journalists answer their own questions the way they ask them. Unfortunately the way it is now players are so afraid to say anything, but I'd like them to be honest.
I think every player listens out for his name being sung and it's something I really enjoy.
For a hundred years, the owners screwed the players. For 25 years, the players have screwed the owners-they've got 75 years to go.
Don't ever ask a player to do something he doesn't have the ability to do. He'll just question your ability as a coach, not his as an athlete.
Ralph. . . would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.
All I ever wanted to do was play competitive golf against the best players in the world.
I played with Joey Mullen back in Salt Lake City before he got called up to St. Louis. He was the first player ever to score 20 goals in the American League and 20 in the NHL. I've kept in contact with him and he's a great guy.
You always catch the wrong players.
If I'd gone straight to the NBA, I don't think I would have been ready as a player or a person.
