Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
At first you see a lot of people say 'Oh he's good, but he can't shoot' or 'Oh he's good, but can his shot translate to the NBA?' That just made me go into the gym and work that much harder to show and prove that I can shoot outside shots, and I can make shots.
Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That's truly about the game, and in some ways that's about life too.
Inch for inch, the 6-foot-3 Westbrook is the NBA's most sensationally talented player, a relentlessly explosive basket-attacker with a deadly pull-up jumper - a top-10 NBA player by any big-picture statistical measure from Player Efficiency Rating to Win Shares.
I don't know concretely if it's due to superstition, but any time a new rule is implemented into the NBA or a new piece of equipment or a new technology, there is always a transition and adjustment period by players and coaches and anyone involved with the game.
My hands are huge. When I was on 'Scrubs,' Zach Braff used to make fun of them all the time. And now I made some list. I guess Jennifer Garner is on the top of the list for best hands and I'm fourth down. But that's for people who really like an NBA star's hands.
You want to win in the NBA you want to build a culture and teams will always do that and try to win. It's cutthroat. All 30 teams want to be that way whether they are rebuilding, have young players, have a style of play. It doesn't matter, everybody wants to win.
I'm not into jewelry. I've got some earrings but they're not too expensive. There are guys who drop a hundred grand for a chain. The public's got it right - a lot of NBA stars are arrogant and like to spend lots of money and have lots of girlfriends and all that.
When I think about my MVP season, I will also think about the loss to Golden State. But winning the award as Most Valuable Player of the NBA is just a huge honor. I didn't really realize how big it was until Mark Cuban had tears in his eyes at the award ceremony.
The NBA's a Fortune 500 company. That's how you look at it. And all the other Fortune 500 companies out there in the world, you don't see their CEOs and COOs going to work with white tees and baggy clothes and stuff like that. So I have to take that same approach.
Coaches don't sleep for a reason. They don't sleep because it's a danger zone every night. Very seldom do you ever get two or three days off... The lifestyle of coaching in the NBA is a tremendous challenge that gives you tremendous highs but also tremendous lows.
In college, everything's structured. In the NBA, it's like, you have a lot of free time, and you have to use it wisely. A lot of the time, you're in a hotel room all day. And rest is really the most important thing. Then, just trying to enjoy yourself and have fun.
Truthfully, this is how I approach my workout: I want to be the best athlete I can possibly be. If I can out-perform some of the better athletes then I'm happy. When I look at the NFL or the NBA, these guys look how I want to look - it's useable, functional muscle.
When you look across the board at the count of NBA quality players that are on various international teams in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, there are good players all over the world now. It's just not in the NBA where America has the most talent.
You know how you're in elementary school and the teacher goes around the room and, like, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' I said, 'NBA player.' And she's like, 'Well, OK. Maybe pick a real job.' But I really believed it. I felt like I was meant to be here.
The year after Russell retired, in the famous seventh game of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, Willis Reed, the New York Knicks center, limped onto the court against the Los Angeles Lakers, inspiring his team and freezing Chamberlain into a benign perplexity.
This is a special class right here, to be an All-Star in the NBA. I don't think anybody would have thought when I was coming in the league that I would get this accomplishment. This is special. I don't know where I would rank it, but it's definitely high on the list.
I always felt that I had to leave a legacy on the African continent. As I was only the third player to come to the NBA from Africa, I felt I had to do my best to recruit more young Africans to come and play in the NBA - and also find a way to bring the NBA to Africa.
It's very important, especially in the basketball culture. We like our fashion. Coming into the NBA, you definitely have to step it up because you're competing on and off the floor. Not only on the court, basketball-wise, but a lot of us take pride in our style, too.
I had never dreamed about the NBA like some guys did. I was a non-scholarship player at an NAIA college. I played on the Boys and Girls Club team in my freshman and sophomore years of high school before I made the high school team. I was our backup center in college.
I learned this lesson very quickly when I came into the NBA: Almost all the media and accolades go to the No. 1 guy. But if you're building a team, the most important player is the No. 2 guy. Because if the No. 2 guy wants to be the No. 1 guy, you have a major problem.
When I first went to Stevens Point, I never thought I'd ever be close to the NBA. I didn't even think about the NBA. The big start for me was making it to the final cut for the Olympic team, and I was the only one who was going to be back for my senior year of college.
I have short goals - to get better every day, to help my teammates every day - but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It's all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.
When I was at the 'Philadelphia Inquirer,' I was promoted nine times in my first 13 years. I ultimately went from general assignment to beats on St. Joe's and Temple, to backup writer, to NBA writer, to NBA columnist, to, ultimately, in 2003, to general sports columns.
The NBA's been around how long? A hundred years? Fifty years? So to change it now, whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked....Whoever did that needs to be fired. It was terrible, a terrible decision. Awful. I might get fined for saying that, but so what?
I've been lucky enough to play on NBA teams I really enjoy, teams where I've liked everybody and had fun, and had that college kind of experience with an NBA team. When you have that, and I don't know that everyone does, but when I've had it, that's what it's all about.
In the early '80s there was a big gap between the NBA and the international game and when we started making our careers here in the NBA, obviously, we became better players. When we used to play each other on the international level, that gap became smaller and smaller.
I didn't really lift consistently before I got to the NBA. In college, I would skip out on it or not do as many reps because, honestly, I didn't like it. I was like 'Man, I'm not going to put on weight, I'm always going to be skinny, I'm not going to be big as the sky.'
If you're versatile, there's no reason a coach can't have you in the game. That's what my dad's philosophy was, so from a young age, he taught me to be a guard first and a big second, though I don't think he had a crystal ball to be able to see what the NBA would become.
You have so many players all around the world in the NBA, a lot of different generations. If you don't take basketball as a tool in your life, you can get lost. I know a lot of teammates, a lot of players that had a great career and after that career, they just get lost.
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of being paid like NBA, NFL and soccer and baseball athletes. They have that cushion where they can kind of hang out. Even the guys on the bench. But for us, we don't fight, we don't get paid and that's the scary reality to it all.
I just want to keep getting better. People used to ask me - when I was winning in the D-League - why I wasn't in the NBA, and I'd tell them, 'I just want to learn and get better.' I figured it'd happen one day, and if it didn't, I really enjoyed my time coaching anyways.
Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.
I always said in my mind I wanted to be an All-Star and show four-year guys in the NBA can be good players as opposed to just one-and-done guys. If I left after my freshman year, I wouldn't have gotten drafted, I probably couldn't deal with D-League and travel on the bus.
I can remember back when I was getting ready for the NBA, going through media training, going to certain camps - they almost teach you to not say anything that will get you any backlash or not say anything out of the norm, and what you're saying could be true to yourself.
A lot of NBA GMs have asked me about me why I changed my middle name to Trill. Actually, the reason why I filed the paperwork to change my name was so that I could officially add my mother's last name, Stein, to my own. My mom is my best friend, and I wanted to honor her.
My rookie year was so much easier, and it was so much shorter than most rookies due to the fact that I had KG. That changes everything. I was blessed to have the opportunity to play with KG - not only learn but play with KG. Not many people in the NBA are able to say that.
When I was younger, I used to always think making it to the NBA would be the coolest thing in the world. I'd dream about it every day. But as you progress and you attain that goal, then you realize the coolest thing is the effect you can have on people, and kids especially.
To me, the All-Star Game is just another step. I try to take all my experiences and put them together. To make the NBA was something, and then to be recognized as an All-Star - although I don't consider myself a star. I see myself as just trying to reach my potential as B. J.
You've got to stay ready, especially around here. That's what we preach, you'll get your opportunity whether it comes at the beginning or in the middle or in the end whenever it may be. When your time comes, you need to be ready to go because you're going to earn your minutes
There are basically five ways to score in the half court. Layups, mid-range, three-pointers, free throws - and then what I call 'tough shots.' Tough shots come anywhere on the floor, under difficult circumstances. The ability to create that shot is a special skill in the NBA.
You're all over the place usually with young players. You're trying to manage their emotions and teach them NBA situations. It usually takes months, even years, to learn and recognize NBA situations and then to develop a level of competitiveness that's necessary at this level.
I was in school to play basketball; I wasn't trying to be a doctor. It's hard to talk about the NCAA rules and everything that happened in the past because I've just been focused on practicing and getting ready... I was trying to reach my dreams, and that's to play in the NBA.
A lot has to be the NBA. I don't know if I can say it is the egos of the players or the money that goes around and everything. But those relationships between the coaches and the players are just not the same. They are not even close to the European coach-player relationships.
I'm going to be one of the top four that's ever played this game, for sure. And if they don't want me to have one of those top four spots, they'd better find another spot on that mountain. Somebody's gotta get bumped, but that's not for me to decide. That's for the architects.
I'm very happy and excited to be re-joining the Sixers family as a part of their broadcast team. I spent my best and most enthusiastic years of my NBA career with this organization and its fans and I truly feel honored and blessed to have been given this opportunity to return.
The way we score is complicated. The rules are strict. The goal on the court is to show nothing, and then when you show something you are a bad person. Getting angry is not allowed. The show that you see on TV is not exciting, like the NFL or NBA, because you are seeing robots.
When you are a young player in the NBA, sometimes you don't pay much attention to some of the cities you visit, especially in cold places like Toronto. But when you spend more time in the league you learn more about the cities you play in, and learn how to appreciate them more.
It's like Christmas every day playing in the NBA. You don't have to worry about the real world and real issues. As you get older, you get more mature and you understand that. There's so many other things going on that we have to shed light on to help these people any way we can.
The NBA is the best league in the world. It's no way you're going to be able to fill the void that the energy of performing before 20,000 people every night gives you. That's just impossible. So, I just try and move on from that and let it be a moment in time and leave it alone.
Look at the NBA players back when Magic and Kareem played in the early 80's with the short shorts, look at what Michael looked like when he first came in the league compared to when he left. Every sport evolves. Every sport gets bigger and more athletic, and you have to keep up.