Of all the things in sports, getting a sack is one of the hardest things to do. It's like a last-second, game-winning shot in the NBA. A guy hits the last-second shot, and the fans scream. For us (defensive ends), the sack is everything. It's hard to get there. But once you do, there's nothing like it.

A closing team is so important in the NBA. The last seven minutes is what you are always coaching to get to. Now you have your team set, you have the match-ups you want, you have your time-outs, your chance to finish the game, and that's my job, to get us to that position during the course of the game.

My good friend Yao Ming was the first big player in the NBA to come from China. He gave himself to the game and was successful. That inspired the NBA to invest more and do more for the game of basketball. We're building academies not just in China, but in India, Africa, Europe and South America as well.

I've been lucky enough with my NBA money to make some investments in some pretty cool things, whether it be partnering up with Ben Sturner and the Leverage Agency; being involved in an analytics company called Simatree; or creating a production company and working with brands and creating content in house.

The seminal elements of what makes a story great - challenge, struggle, resolution - are the same whether we're talking about story content for a movie such as 'Rain Man,' or telling a purposeful story to forge new business relationships or conclude a fruitful transaction, such as acquiring an NBA franchise.

The Trump people make it extremely hard to figure out what's going on with their businesses, so we've done things like try to figure out all the people, the charities who rented out ballrooms and hotel rooms, all the NBA teams that stay at his hotels, people that pay him a lot of money and have other choices.

My mother was a secretary that elevated herself to having her own international company, my father elevated himself to an NBA player and perennial all-star. So I learned from my parents that it's about hard work, about both of them getting their education, putting people first and leading a life of integrity.

So many black kids aspire to be entertainers or professional athletes because those are the only role models they see that look like them. There are only 300 jobs in the NBA but an endless amount of opportunities as an entrepreneur. With enough hustle, entrepreneurship opens doors to a world of opportunities.

I totally can relate to guys going in for job interviews, and not having a tie, not having a white shirt, and that type of thing to wear. That's why I think as coaches we can do things to help. We have plenty, we as NBA coaches and players are all very blessed to be in a profession so that we can provide for.

I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.

I had a poster of Kevin Garnett hanging in my room. He was one of my inspirations when I was young. I was at my friend's house - he had a lot of money, so sometimes I'd go to his place to watch some NBA action. I remember the first time I saw Kevin Garnett, I just felt something in my body: 'This feels like me.'

If you want to make films, you'll watch Kurosawa. If you want to play a violin, you listen to Seghetti. Same with somebody who has the ambition to play in the NBA. I watch a basketball game; I enjoy it. Somebody who really wants to learn to play is studying whatever is most magnificent that's going on out there.

When you first come in the NBA, you have a lot of conversations about saving your money, financially educating yourself, not just trusting whoever it is handling your money, not just having those meetings once a year, and not really putting the effort into learning the same way you learn your craft on the court.

Coach Blatt's been great! He comes with a worldly dynamic and I think that's what our game has been lacking. He's coached and played all over the world, so his perspective on the game of basketball is kind of different from most traditional NBA coaches. But at the same time, it makes it interesting and exciting.

I had friends around campus and great teammates. I didn't want to leave. I didn't expect to be regarded and scouted as such a high pick, so it was a crazy twist to reality. I'd always wanted to make the NBA. It was my dream. Then all of a sudden, people were telling me I'd be the fourth pick if I entered the draft.

You're coaching Kentucky - and you have a chance to change lives. That's not what this is up there in the NBA. You have assets. You're trying to piece a team together. You're trying to win more games than the other guy. You're trying to advance in the playoffs, and if you don't, they'll find somebody else that can.

I always say this to people: 'If Shaq can be in the NBA for 19 years and dominate for 19 years using his body, why can't I be in the music industry for 50 years using my brain when my brain is way stronger than anyone's body?' I have to have a successful record company, more hit records. I want to dominate the game.

We get a lot of emails, a lot of suggestions on the kinds of ideas and things that people would like to do. There's a lot of good ones, but a lot of them are something that the franchise couldn't or wouldn't endorse, just as being not consistent with what the NBA would want or, probably, what we would even want, too.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals to Golden State, LeBron James sat motionless in the locker room, staring straight ahead, still wearing his game jersey, for 45 minutes after the final buzzer. Here was a guy immensely wealthy, widely admired, at the peak of his powers - yet stricken, inconsolable.

I grew up playing sports, so I think of what it would be like to be in the NBA if you were a great player when Michael Jordan was playing. You could've been a phenomenal player, but you're in the Jordan era. That's the unfortunate thing about the competitive nature of entertainment. But we know what we signed up for.

I think it's hard to compare the NBA and the WNBA, but the thing about the NBA is they just have a ton of movement every year, but the WNBA doesn't. Free agency is not set up that way; the money is obviously not set up that way, so when one player moves, it could set the stage for, literally, like, six or seven years.

Despite their tremendous talent, (NBA players) are still, by and large, young adults, seeking validation from an authority figure, and there is no greater authority figure on a team than the coach. Needless to say, in today's warped, self-indulgent climate, too many players couldn't care less about appeasing the coach.

Mark Jackson played 19, 20 years in the NBA. Shouldn't even have probably been in the league, and he's the third-ranked assist guy in the NBA. But you describe his game: Can he jump? No, not really. How's his outside shot? Eh, it's inconsistent. Can he defend? Nah, he can't stay in front of guys. And he played 19 years!

I think any of the older guys you can poll throughout the NBA, they're super-regimented. Because as long as that body lasts, your mind should be better; your shot should be better. But the reality is, at some point, your body does break down - you do get older - so it's just, how do you prolong that as long as possible?

As you get more experience out there, as you get more comfortable with the NBA system, the offense, the schemes, you begin to understand where you're going to get your looks from. And I think a big part of playing well is not having to look over your shoulder and just understanding that you're consistently be counted on.

In the NBA, you're taking a bunch of different talents, and you're managing them. You have to give them a system; you have to give them a belief. That's why coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are so great: because they gave the team confidence in the system and in their ability to execute night in and night out.

From a young age, I wanted to play in the NBA. Oh well... It was when I was a senior in college that I fell for film, but even then, it wasn't documentaries. It wasn't until I ended up in graduate school at Southern Illinois University that I really discovered documentaries and thought that maybe that would be my calling.

When the NBA first resorted to it in 1979, I must admit I thought it was a circus rule, the equivalent of asking players to be shot out of cannons or swallow swords, something borrowed from the stepchild ABA with its red, white and blue basketballs. A 3-point line? The beautiful game of basketball didn't need a clown shot.

The Energy job was probably the key. It kind of transitioned me back into the States. It gave me a link to the NBA. And I got to make some contacts and meet some players and get players set up and learn the NBA game and terminology and coaching those type of players. It was certainly a huge, huge key to getting to the NBA.

The Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan’s three-point explosion in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals against Portland is easily one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. As he made his sixth straight, he winked directly at (broadcast partner) Mike (Fratello) and me and held his palms up in a shrug, as if to say, What can I do?

I want to be a free agent. I think everybody in the NBA dreams to be a free agent at least one time in their career. It's like you have an evaluation period. It's like if I'm in the gym and I have all the coaches, all the owners, all the GMs come into the gym and just evaluate everything I do. So yes, I want that experience.

Owner Red McCombs has a track record for dumping teams - he owned both the NBA's Spurs and Nuggets at various times - and his stadium situation just isn't going to get resolved in the Twin Cities. Even some of his fellow owners have him No. 1 on the relocation list. I think Red might sell, ... He's been known to sell before.

Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA.

When you're talking to legends, they've already went through this process of playing in the NBA and also living after their career is over. Being able to hear their stories, how they've had success and others have had success to get an idea of what we should be looking to do and know what we need to do is just really helpful.

If the NBA is worried about the NBA, if the NCAA is worried about the NCAA, if each individual institution is just worried about themselves, and the last thing we think about is these kids, then we're going to make wrong decisions. There are a lot of players of different levels, of different abilities. Let's be fair with them.

In the summer of 1963, my second with 'Sports Illustrated,' Jerry Tax, the basketball editor, got the Celtics' Frank Ramsey, the NBA's first famous sixth man, to do a piece for the magazine revealing some of the devious little tricks of his trade. Things like surreptitiously holding an opponent's shorts - nickel-and-dime stuff.

I feel like when it comes to rap - like, real rap music - and knowing the pioneers of rap, I feel like there's no competition for me in the NBA. Other guys can rap, but they're not as invested or as deep into actual music as I am and always have been. I think that might be what the difference is. I'm more wanting to be an artist.

I think the free agent process is a little bit different because other major pro sports like the NBA or NHL, you're looking at 30 teams. You have 30 options. You don't really have that in this industry. There is one name that stands above all else, and that's WWE. So to really be on top, that's where you have to apply your trade.

The NBA has made a real issue about really making these superstars the premium that everybody wants to go to. That's their calling card and their marketing tool. But the coaches at the other end of the sphere are trying to make everybody on the team, even nine, 10, 11, 12, just as important, and have a real role that's meaningful.

Being broke and poor - I mean, you grow up in the environment I grew up in, grew up hard and grew up poor. Your mom doesn't have a car until you make it to the NBA... no telephone. So, I mean, if you grow up like that, and you're able to make it to this level and be blessed the way I've been blessed, it's always great to give back.

I think college prepared me at a really high level. High school, you can take some plays off on the defensive end. Not on purpose, but if your man gets tired, you can rest a little bit. But once you get to college, and especially in the NBA, you can't do that. Even if my man gives the ball up, I'm on help side, helping my team out.

Coming in, I had no idea basketball would be a career for me, but I grew 7 inches in college and was fortunate to have a great career in the NBA. The experience taught me about service, what our great country was built on, the sacrifices people have made, how to work together and trust the people around you to accomplish a great goal.

During games, I love a Twitter-rocking dunk as much as the next NBA nut. But now, I'd slightly rather see a crowd-detonating (or crowd-silencing) 3-pointer, either off four or five whip-whip passes or (even better) off a steal and a one-on-two pull-up on a solo fast break. No shot in basketball can be more psychologically devastating.

I usually dig the single-digit numbers, but No2 is retired. I'm going to change it up and wear No10. I'm going to wear it for Messi, my favourite soccer player. I've been playing a lot of FIFA lately and watching the games. He's the best little guy to do it and I've got to be the best little guy to do it at No10 in the NBA. That's my goal.

If I were involved with the NBA, I wouldn't want a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old kid to bring into all the travel and all the problems that exist in the NBA. I would want a much more mature kid. I would want a kid that maybe I've been watching on another team, and now he's 21, 22 years old instead of 18 or 19, and I might trade for that kid.

The NBA makes you become a bigger version of what you already were. If you were somebody who was not so nice and you came into a lot of money and fame, then you're probably going to abuse that in the wrong way. But if you come into those things and you were doing the right things, then chances are you're going to do more of the right things.

Well I think the problem is, is that...what people don't realize is they're gonna get away from the people that they're marketing with now. They're tryna change everything about the format of the NBA, the imaging and everything. This is more about control you know what I'm saying? This has nothing to do with clothing. This is a control issue.

I think everyone that's from Cleveland knows exactly where they were when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals. I was filming a movie, 'The Marine 5: Battleground,' up in Vancouver, so I couldn't be at the game, but I watched it in my hotel room with my wife - who could care less, by the way, about basketball because she's from Montreal.

We are honored to host the greatest players in the NBA in the newly transformed World's Most Famous Arena for the 2015 All-Star Game. Over its 134-year history, Madison Square Garden has been privileged to host some of sports most defining and enduring moments and we are thrilled to add this prestigious event to The Garden's illustrious history.

I mean, I was always hoping to play in the NBA. Of course, when that thing happened, you're like, 'Finally, I did it, but the work starts now.' I didn't want to just be known as OK, I came to the NBA, and then in a few years, you're gone. First my goal was to be the best Slovenian player in the league. Of course, after that, your appetite goes up.

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