David Cone Quotes

Coaching in the NBA is not easy. It's like a nervous breakdown with a paycheck.

I don't see myself coaching because the intensity of that is massive, and the intensity as a manager, for example Arsene Wenger, is even more.

When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've been the equivalent of a fastball pitcher - trying to use blazing speed and brute force to wow the people around me.

I think what coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing there ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I've done that in my 33 years as a head coach.

Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.

Nobody likes to hear it, because it's dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same - pitching.

The art of coaching is to give a player freedom to bring out his talent. It is the player's responsibility for what happens once they are on the pitch.

My idea is to know every player and to know, also, the personality of the players.

You make mental notes. You're a coach, so you make mental notes from matchups, to who steps up in the playoffs to who doesn't, different types of players.

When I first came to England to play I saw coaches having a go at players when they made mistakes and they would literally be talking them through the game.

As a player, I've always been interested in understanding the coaches' minds, in seeing how they made a group function.

I like making players better and smarter.

But concepts around how a team functions, the importance of the relationship between football and the person, how you develop both, are always valid.

Most coaches' attention to detail is very good; it's their job. They have to analyse teams, and they have to analyse their own team.

Every coach will have good and bad.

My only focus is to try to assess and to provide the players with better tools to perform.

When you are one of the best coaches in the world, it is normal to attract bad reviews if you lose a couple of games.

As a player, I had no idea whatsoever about getting a team ready for a game, what it entails.

I think the 20-year-old me from that time, if I could have been managed under Jurgen Klopp, I'd have benefitted.

The decisions you make are based on what you think is better for the team and the player.

I think Mourinho did not have enough respect for us.

Whenever you are coaching, you are trying to get the most balanced team that you can: balance between defense, offense, and rebounding.

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.

Even over time, with a stable coaching staff and one manager who is fantastic and been in place for a long time, you can't ever defer and stay out of the clubhouse because you don't want to get in the way.

I used to have a log on every corner in the league, what their strengths and weaknesses are.