Kenny Smith Quotes

I spend countless hours each and every day after practice doing form shooting. You know, coming in on off days to shoot.

Probably a lack of concentration. I always hit them during practice. I just need to concentrate. Even though I should a lousy percentage, I beat a lot of teams from the line. You have to have mechanics. But see, what people don't know about my wrists is my wrists don't go all the way back. My wrists are crooked and don't go all the way back. I've been practicing and working on them. You can't do everything good.

I never knew what basketball was. I started playing on the playground. People used to laugh at me and joke at me because I was so tall and I didn't know the game and couldn't play it.

My focus is basketball, and that's it.

Basketball was every day of my life. Wake up with a ball - sometimes I'd sleep with it because someone told me that was better for you.

I wasn't always tall. I was shorter so my stepdad had me at point guard so I learned those skills.

I like doing drills and when coaches take you through drills and stuff, but I don't like counting shots and things like that. I just shoot until I feel good.

The older you get, the longer your jump shot becomes.

I know at times I'm going to have to just take the 3-ball when it's there instead of trying to get more to that midrange. But the midrange game is definitely one of my strong suits. I can't give that up.

I had this DVD that my coach in Cameroon had mailed to me when I first came to America. It was an hour-long tape of Hakeem Olajuwon and some other legendary big men. I probably watched that DVD every single day for three years.

My dad always taught me the fundamentals of the game: dribble, pass, shoot. So I never relied heavily on any one thing until I got to college, when I was just adjusting to the team.

Manute Bol taught my family the game of basketball.

When you're younger, you might make some shots you're not normally capable of, because you're more fluid, maybe stronger, maybe faster. As you get older, you learn not to take those crazy shots.

To improve my free throws I went back to the mechanics and really learning how to have form and shoot the ball, so I have to get comfortable with that.

I try to anticipate the ball well. That's something that's helped me since when I was a kid. Just learning to anticipate and read the game well. That's helped me. When I moved over to Spain and I was 15 I was playing with big guys who were 22 years to 28 years old and I was 15 so I couldn't beat them with power. I had to beat them with touch shots and variety and anticipation and all of those things. I learned a lot when I was over there.

Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions, as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.

... keep practicing. After a great deal of practice, we no longer think about all the necessary movements we must make; they become part of our existence. Before reaching that stage, however, you must practice and repeat. And if that's not enough, you must practice and repeat some more.

Football comes naturally to me, but basketball is a challenge, that's why I like it so much.

I can get better. I haven't reached my ceiling yet on how well I can shoot the basketball.

A lot of kids just want to go play basketball, but they don't know to play and they don't have the skills to play. I think just the skill development right off and then play all you can, but don't sacrifice your skill development by just playing and not working on the specifics of the game.

Specialists can never practice their specialties too much. The danger is in not practicing enough. Make that mistake, and soon you may not be in the specialty business anymore.

Losing is only temporary and not encompassing. You must simply study it, learn from it, and try hard not to lose the same way again. Then you must have the self-control to forget about it.

I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.

Most lay-ups and two foot jump shots around the goal are missed by not putting the ball up high enough on the backboard

To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat, until the technique becomes intuitive.