Ernesto Valverde Quotes

My decision leaving the Nuggets was based on the organization not saying they had the cap room to sign me.

I think every player should be allowed to stay or leave a club.

Every player looks forward to free agency.

I don't think it's right to think ahead to free agency.

What I love about our league is that players have an opportunity in their career to be a free agent and decide where they want to invest their time and their talent, in whatever team and whatever system. They deserve that right. They've earned that right.

When I look at our roster, I'm sure all of you have printed that I'm coming up on 35, and given my situation and my salary structure and all that, yeah, I have to wonder if this team is going to make moves and they haven't.

Obviously, in the NBA, there's a lot of different decisions that people make. The whole thing in the NBA is that people sometimes have an opportunity to go where they want.

When you go into free agency and have options, any team is up for you to be on - and the Raiders, obviously with me having been there for so long, have a great shot at it.

A player's mind, body and soul have to be right to get the best out of them, and if a player no longer wants to be at a club then the club should try and get the best deal they can and let the player move on.

It's just part of the NFL. There's going to be moving parts constantly. There's going to be roster changes. There's going to be coaches going somewhere else.

I think people have to realize that - and basketball fans do, Lakers fans do - that we have to operate under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, which means you can't just go and grab every player that you want.

Contracts are not a holy relic in football. You can like this attitude or not, but it's the truth. Sometimes you have to think about if it is meaningful to try out a new impulse.

I haven't been in a position to be a free agent or know what that is like and then to have the chance to go where you want to go. That's always been - I feel, with players, they want that option.

That's part of free agency. You can go where you want at the end of the day.

You cannot be mad at somebody for wanting to play for another team.

I would love to retire a Raider, but I have earned the right to be a free agent.

Free agency screws everybody's allegiances up. Whether it be football, baseball, hockey, basketball, whatever it may be. It's really hard.

I've got to play free agency out, and I've got to look at all of my options.

The two major things that changed the makeup of all professional sports are money generated by television and courts that players went to in order to win their freedom as free agents.

The NBA believes if you play for a team and get paid by a team, you're the property of that team for 24 hours a day.

After 12 years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold regardless of my wishes.

I can hardly think of any players that have really walked out of their own volition while there were still teams that really wanted them at a fair price.

Two of the most difficult parts of our business is trades and when a player leaves.

The entire NBA knew in 2010 that the best player in the world could be a free agent in 2014. We weren't the only team positioning ourselves for the summer of 2014.

I've seen players in the past who wanted to stay with their team, and it didn't work out.