Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think it's important at the end of the day you know obviously playing in the NBA is a great thing, but representing your country at the highest level is something totally different.
It's a business when the NBA cuts you, trades you or waives you. But you're a villain, as a player, when you take your future and your happiness in your own hands and it's unfortunate.
Because I play in the NBA, I am lucky enough to have a public platform, so I've used every opportunity to make sure everyone knows about Erdogan's cruelty and disdain for human rights.
A lot of guys ask me, 'Why did you go straight from high school to the NBA?' So I ask them, 'If you had the opportunity to take your dream job at 17- or 18-years-old, would you do it?'
Somebody out there was trying to use my language and trying to speak for me. Rather than have that happen, I thought I'd do it myself. It's a fun thing. It's a way for fans to connect.
I think it's a travesty that the NBA can't just tell these guys to play basketball two days in a row. It's just a joke to me. We flew commercial, and we were able to play back-to-back.
The NBA (National Basketball Association) is never just a business. It's always business. It's always personal. All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.
Every time we play, we want to win, that's for sure. It may be the World Championship, the Olympics, the NBA Championship or the South American Championship, but we always want to win.
To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it. I just told coach, 'Give me the ball.' We're either going to go to overtime or I'm going to win it for us. It was that simple.
I think my assist numbers dropped off in Toronto with the way we were built. We played a lot of isolation basketball. I know we were in the bottom half in the NBA as far as assists go.
If someone were to ask me before I made the NBA, you going to have to go through all this, you're going to have to sign your soul away to play in the league, I still would have done it.
We really have some of the best fans in the NBA, in sports in general. Here, you get a consistent base, people support. People love the Spurs, and that's special. That's not everywhere.
For me, I spent four years at Duke, and I was 22 my rookie year. For a lot of guys, I was old as a rookie, but nothing could prepare me for the NBA, both on the court and off the court.
The good part about being famous is being able to help people. The hard part is every day you have to be in a good mood, because that is what people expect. You learn to get good at it.
I have a pretty good idea of what makes NBA players great - especially at the different positions, and where the biggest problems lie that you have to address in defending those people.
Every NBA player, every athlete, I think once you get to this level in life, whether you have kids or you're about to have kids, understands that this is so much bigger than this sport.
It's his show and I'm just trying to make him look good. If we were the same age there might be a little tension, but I'm on my way out... I am here to serve your every need, King James.
I played basketball at Kentucky in 1986-87 and '87-88 and enjoyed a 12-year NBA career. After multiple injuries and seven surgeries, I developed an addiction to prescription painkillers.
As I move on to the professional stage of my career, I will always remember my time as a Jayhawk. Playing here has prepared me for the opportunity to have a successful career in the NBA.
Getting a star player in the NBA is not impossibly hard, but close. It requires either an incredible amount of luck, or an amazing amount of time, or some other way to try and get at it.
I would go after any rookie. Any rookie with a lot of hype. I used to do it to Jason Kidd. I would go at him. I'd be like, 'Young fella, you're going to get a rude awakening in the NBA.'
If you look at the history of the NBA, guys that came out of high school are the guys that held the NBA together. You look a Kobe Bryant, you look at a LeBron, these are household names.
I'd read about NBA players in magazines when I was growing up in Congo, but I had never actually seen what NBA basketball looked like because we didn't have access to a satellite for TV.
My biggest achievement - besides being drafted into the NBA - was becoming a father. Being a father has made me experience things that have contributed to my maturity and personal growth.
I think that Paul Gasol is the most skilled big man in the NBA today with his ability to post on either block, the way he runs the floor, and the way he can shoot the mid-range jump shot.
I started broadcasting in 1992, calling Providence College women's basketball on radio. From there to an analyst on the NBA. Think of that journey and every step in between. It's special.
Watching a guy go from not having ever played an NBA game before to growing up and developing into an All-Star player, that's probably the most rewarding thing that you can do as a coach.
The way I dress, I dress totally different than I did when I was in college. I have to - try to - look professional. You change a lot when you are in the NBA, but I know where I came from.
We knew the European players that went to the NBA and had great careers, and we knew the ones that went and had terrible careers or finished early. We were prepared for a lot of criticism.
In the NBA they've taken away so much of the hand-checking and the physicality of how guys are able to guard you. So if you touch me, I'm gonna throw the ball toward the rim and get shots.
About strip clubs and athletes. The best way I can explain why a lot of players end up there is because it's one of the safest places a high-profile person can spend time in a boring city.
I don't think when I decided I didn't want to be an accountant any more that I was necessarily saying I wanted to be an NBA head coach. I just really wanted to figure out if I could do it.
I said it when I got hired. I said, for five years, I had a 1,000 people telling me I was going to be a head coach in the NBA. And when I got the job, those same 1,000 people were shocked.
The ABA really loosened up the NBA and introduced innovations like the three-point shot and the Slam Dunk and other competitions at the All Star Game. And we had all the hot young players.
I'm no dummy. So much of the NBA is just fit and situation, and I always say this, for 85 to 90 percent of the league, your performance is often dictated by your situation and your coaches.
I really think the people I run into in the NBA, whether it's the front office side or in coaching, everybody wants to work in an atmosphere where everybody's pulling in the same direction.
I've been around a lot of great coaches in college and the NBA, and I knew Erik Spoelstra three months, and I told my wife, father, and brother that this guy is going to be a helluva coach.
It wasn't until I moved to Spain that I actually got my first glimpse of the NBA. I'd watch this program called 'NBA Action,' which came on every week and showed clips from different games.
Strength is never a negative. The stronger you are, the more you're able to defend. The more physical you are, the better you are. The top teams in the NBA are the most physical teams, too.
By delivering a wide array of programming to YouTube, the NBA will be able to connect with its existing worldwide fan base and reach a vast new audience that is passionate about basketball.
It's hard to live up to the expectations. Besides that, I think I had a very good NBA career, and I'm proud of it. I might not have been an absolute monster, but I thought I did pretty good.
You've got to understand, every kid in college basketball, if you ask them where they want to play a game, in the NBA or college, they will tell you Madison Square Garden, a huge percentage.
In college, I wasn't losing weight the right way. Sometimes, I would just... not eat in order to get my weight down. You can't do that in the NBA - there are too many games to do it that way.
I have friends growing up in Egypt. I have friends in England. And they just can't believe that what I used to say, it used to be almost like a joke. I used to say I'll be in the NBA one day.
Even before I made my high school team, I'd say I want to be a NBA player, and people laughed at me with, 'Get out of here, you ain't going to be a NBA player. You don't even play basketball.'
As a player, NBA All-Star Weekend contains a lot of joy and a lot of excitement. Even with all the hype built into the game, it's really a special honor to be selected among many great players.
Wherever you go, things change you. I mean, obviously moving to Miami and becoming part of the NBA has given me a different perspective on style than I had when I lived in Chicago or Milwaukee.
Boston is a very proud franchise. The NBA misses them when they are not in the mix. They, along with teams like the Knicks and 76ers are a big part of the heart, soul and history of the league.
I feel like every NBA player puts their life into this game, and for it to be cut short - it hurts, especially when you have so much unfinished business that you feel like you needed to handle.
The biggest surprise has been making the adjustment after losing a game. In the NBA you could lose tonight and you have to put that game behind you because you have another game the next night.