Basketball Quotations | Page 8

We know who we are. We know we're a defensive basketball club when it comes down to it. We just had a facelift so to speak with our offense. But we know who we are. When it's time for us to go up-and-down, we know where it's at. It's not getting extra possessions and extra shots, it's taking care of the defensive end.

We know what happened the first 10 minutes, and we know what happened the last 30. I try to focus on the 30 because that's what makes us a good basketball team.

We know we've got a Herculean task in front of us, same as last year. Our (five) seniors didn't want to lose this one, though. They wanted to practice and play basketball at least one more week.

You always have to know what business you are in. Everybody thought we were in the basketball business. It's an NBA-team; we are not in the basketball business. We are in the business of creating experiences and memories.

One thing I learned in the NBA is that the No. 1 job of a general manager is to keep his job. They are only 30 positions where you make millions and hang around with basketball players all day.

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.

There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don't put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.

Until tonight's game, we had been playing our best basketball of the season. Defensively, I thought we grew up this season. We played smarter and better as the season went on.

Until our administration puts more money into the (basketball) program, we are always going to have trouble with teams like Bakersfield. They have kids who come to school for one semester to play basketball, and that's not how we do it.