Kirby Smart Quotes

I always hated to throw a guy out of a game but sometimes it was necessary to keep order.

If the NBA is worried about the NBA, if the NCAA is worried about the NCAA, if each individual institution is just worried about themselves, and the last thing we think about is these kids, then we're going to make wrong decisions. There are a lot of players of different levels, of different abilities. Let's be fair with them.

We penalize and suspend players for making contact with the head while checking, in an effort to reduce head injuries, yet we still allow fighting. We're stuck in the middle and need to decide what kind of sport do we want to be. Either anything goes and we accept the consequences, or take the next step and eliminate fighting.

Man, coaching is a hard job, and it requires a lot of time... I hear stories from coaches who tell me that players call them in the middle of the night not knowing where they parked their car. You are baby-sitting rich, spoiled kids... I don't know where you parked your car!

I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.

There's an excitement to officiating a well-played game. A lot of discretion, a lot of judgment comes into play.

One of the things I like to do is let the players play and the coaches coach.

I see it every week - parents shouting and screaming at kids. My dad was the same. He was always there, but he never interfered. Ron Greenwood, who was the manager of West Ham when I was a kid, wouldn't allow any parent to shout from the touchline. He thought players should be allowed to think for themselves.

One of the things you get caught up as a coach is thinking short-term.

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

I have faith in the players, who have paid me back on the pitch. I have brought in young players because they have a lot of potential. I'm the only one who decides, and I take decisions based on sporting reasons.

How can I tell somebody, 'Don't shoot that shot' when I'm out there chunking 'em?

You have to make some hard decisions when you're speaker.

It's a very complex sport, so judging is going to be very complex, too. And not everyone is going to agree all the time on who wins a fight.

The Reeves Nelson debacle, that hurt me. There are certain things regarding him that I couldn't say then and still can't. But I should have pulled the plug on him after his sophomore year. We tried to make it work, but we couldn't make it happen.

In every match, there are difficult decisions; sometimes they go in your favour and sometimes against. You need to be able to accept them.

You try to do the best for your club, and you also create relationships and friendships - with Neymar, my relationship is really strong, even though it really hurt the club when he left. As a friend, I could understand his decision and why he wanted to go to Paris. I tried to be fair to him no matter what.

I know how to get the best out of the players.

You make smart, educated decisions that are best for your football team.

We’re stuck in the middle and need to decide what kind of sport do we want to be. Either anything goes and we accept the consequences or take the next step and eliminate fighting.

If you choose to criticize, you choose your enemies.

To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.

We hated to see Coach Riley go. Coach Riley is a very smart individual and he knows his coaching style. He also knows how long to stay with it and move on. He is a very demanding individual. When you coach at that level like that it tends to whirl the players.

If one makes a mistake, then an apology is usually sufficient to get things back on an even keel. However-and this is a big ‘however’- most people do not ever know why their apology did not seem to have any effect. It is simply that they did not make a mistake; they made a choice…and never understood the difference between the two.

My bench never heard me mention winning. My whole emphasis was for each one of my players to try to learn to execute the fundamentals to the best of their ability. Not to try to be better than somebody else, but to learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best they could be; that's what I emphasized more than anything else.