Robert Parish Quotes

When teams are crowded in the paint, it's very hard to get in there and penetrate, but you got to find ways to get into transition and get into your strengths. It's a lot of thinking out there, you got to make sure you think and strategize.

You know, pass now to pinch post, cut, shoot the shot. Do things to facilitate the offense. That's what I did in Alabama.

It's easy to draw up isolation basketball - it's not easy to draw up great motion offense with passing and cutting.

I love fast breaks, and I love playing full-court basketball, but offensively in the half court, I kind of take my time, let guys cut, and let the defense move. Then, if I have a move, I'll go. If not, I'll just hand it off to a teammate.

It starts the fast-break a lot easier when I get the ball. I don't have to wait for big men to give me it. Just get it and go.

At Golden State, it was basically a guard-oriented offense and it wasn't either around me or in my direction.

The triangle offense is more for slashers and people who like to take the ball to the basket.

I think there's a lot that goes into an offense, obviously.

Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.

The triangle is a foundation to an offense.

I'm not really a big X's and O's guy, but if you want to go there, I'm more of a space-the-floor type of coach: Five out, zero in, and that's the way we play basketball, screen and roll here and there, pocket passes everywhere; it's what it's about.

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.

I had a vision of how basketball should be played. And the vision was the Knicks teams that won the championship in 1970 and 1973. I wanted a team that emphasized defense. I wanted a team that on offense had a system where players moved off the ball, and the ball moved.

Everyone does things differently on offense. Everyone's goal is to score points.

I don't love playing zone all the time, because it does have an effect on your offense.

Street basketball is all about shakes and fakes, crossing your defender up. The NBA is more strategic.

Without the hand check rule, players are more likely to work their way open.

If you see the NBA now, a lot of it is in transition. Most people now try to get an easy shot off in six or eight seconds before the defense gets set.

I think in Toronto my job was to score just based on the system that we had. We played a lot of iso basketball - a lot of one-on-one basketball.

It used to be every single time you got the rebound, you handed it to the point guard, or you outlet it to the point guard, or everyone cleared, and you waited until the point guard brought the ball up the floor.

I'm always open. As soon as I cross the half-court line, I'm open.

A team like Golden State makes you change your lineup a little bit.

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.

We need to play tough defense and have a sound offense. But mostly, we have to outrebound the other team.

Isolation basketball will always be part of the game. But the system has to be predicated on ball movement and, more importantly, player movement.