Quotes About Basketball

Before Julius Erving, being a stylish basketball player meant 13 ounces of pomade in your hair and color coordinating the belt in your shorts with your canvas sneakers. Dr. J was a transcendent figure athletically, but he also changed the aesthetics of the sport.

I think guys that play basketball really understand how to go up and get a ball. Because in a rebound situation, you've got to go up and fight for a ball. Just boxing out. There are a lot of things that transfer.

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.

Four-men aren't used to picking up guys pushing the ball in transition. Let alone, somebody getting the rebound and just busting.

When I get the rebound - push the ball. That couple of seconds when you're trying to find the point guard, you're losing in transition. You rebound, push the ball and the whole game is faster.

I guess when people ask what is the biggest transition to the NBA from college, it is definitely defense and the mental part.

Offensively and defensively, I think I probably do a lot better in guarding people in transition and shooting the ball in transition.

I like a lot of James Harden, isolation-wise. Chris Paul in the pick-and-roll. Kevin Durant in transition.

Not to sound corny, but if life is a sport, if you're moving to dive on a fumble or pick up a basketball in transition or pivoting to grab your toddler so he doesn't fall into a pool... those are real life movements.

One-on-one is different than actually going through picks, hitting the floor, playing 5-on-5, getting back in transition, making quick moves without thinking about it.

When you're running next to a guy who's about to lay it up in transition, you just get out of the way because you know Giannis is coming to block it.

I believe in getting the ball up the floor and trying to take advantage of transition opportunities.

That's where your defense starts. If you are not good in transition, you probably aren't going to be good. Or you'll be taking it out of the net and playing a lot of offense.

Running in transition and scoring in transition, prevents you from setting your defense up on the other side.

Even though I'm not a five-man, everywhere I've been, I've controlled a lot of defenses, transition defense and putting guys in the right position.

The truth is I'm a bit old school. For me, it would be hard to put on a Lakers jersey. That's just the way it is.

Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen.

What I learned playing basketball at Ole Miss, he said, was what not to do: beat up a kid. It's easy to beat up a kid. The hard thing is to build him up.

But Daryl Morey believed—if he believed in anything—in taking a statistically based approach to decision making. And the most important decision he made was whom to allow onto his basketball team.

Daryl Morey believed—if he believed in anything—in taking a statistically based approach to decision making. And the most important decision he made was whom to allow onto his basketball team. "Your mind needs to be in a constant state of defense against all this crap that is trying to mislead you," he said. "We're always trying to figure out what's a trick and what's real. Are we seeing a hologram? Is this an illusion?

It was also possible to back out from the box scores the pace at which various college teams played—how often they went up and down the court. Adjusting a college player's stats for his team's pace of play was telling. Points and rebounds meant one thing when the team took 150 shots a game and something different when it took just 75. Just adjusting for pace gave you a clearer picture of what any given player had accomplished than the conventional view did.

His first mistake, he decided, was to have paid insufficient attention to Joey Dorsey's age. "He was insanely old," says Morey. "He was twenty-four years old when we drafted him." Dorsey's college career was impressive because he was so much older than the people he played against.

The NBA was once a league full of guys who topped out at 5-foot-9, wore belts in their shorts, and reeked of pomade. When it came to dishing the ball there was only one option: the bounce pass. The game's changed a lot since then.

I feel like part of the reason I play basketball so much is it just feels good. In the summer I play every single day.