 But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players who want to imitate hip-hop stars. And the NBA is taking advantage of the situation. |
| It's like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream - they could be down 30 points but that's what they do. Okay, so you made a dunk. Get back down the floor on defense! |
| I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing - was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. |
| It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race. |
| The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don't know, these guys today don't want to do anything like that. |
| Basketball is basketball. |
| You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot - a three-point shot - or a dunk. |
| This is where young players today want to land. They want to be NBA players because of the money. |
| They should have a rule: in order to be a sportswriter, you have to have played that sport, at some level; high school, college, junior college, somewhere. Or, you should have had to have been around the game for a long time. |
| You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the court talking about Xs and Os. |
| I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen. |
| When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player. |
| Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game. |
| But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them. |
| We're all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team. |
| I think that teaching coaches are the norm now. |
| But I like to think an athlete is an athlete. |
| When you play guard, you're not going to block a lot of shots. Inside, you're going to block shots. |
| You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him. |
| You don't cut anywhere, don't pick down anywhere, don't double screen, no weak side picking. All these things that should happen in a game of basketball don't happen anymore. |
