Sue Bird Quotes

Culture is very important to the Mavs. Your best player has to be a fit for what you want the culture of the team to be. He has to be someone who leads by example. Someone who sets the tone in the locker room and on the court. It isn't about who talks the most or the loudest. It is about the demeanor and attitude he brings.

I was fortunate to play for Pete Rose and have teammates like Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Perez and Dave Concepcion. I grew up in the game with a mature attitude. I've always known it was better to be seen and not heard.

When your best players are really good guys, it's the best.

I think me making the Select Team was huge. It was the chance for me to be around those guys and see their work ethic and how they prepare. I think that's what I took the most away from it.

At the age of 16, when I had my first traning session with the first-team squad, I came into the cabin and there stood Ribery and he said: 'Come here, sit down. Take the locker beside me.'

I'm going to have a great career when I'm done. But when people talk about me, I want them to say, 'Yo, not only was Shady McCoy really good, but he was a solid person in the locker room. He helped us out.'

I love the game of football, love getting better. My teammates know me, and I show them who I am in the locker room and don't change on the field.

I think there's nothing that's not important. Everything you do - from how you connect with the guys in the locker room, to how you learn, to how you play on the field - everything's important; everything goes with the position.

One of my theories is to be captain on the field and off the field, you need to totally enjoy each other's company. I don't like discussing cricket off the field.

I was captain in Atletico at 19, playing in the same team as Demetrio Albertini, who won three Champions Leagues, and Sergi Barjuan from Barcelona, who had won everything, and they were 32, 33. I was a kid as captain, so I wasn't the real captain, just a kid learning from them.

Football is my profession now. I'm getting married in August... It's a new experience for me as someone just getting out of college. I still have the same attitude about football I always had. I play hard. I enjoy practice. I'd rather be throwing in passing drills than sitting around and watching TV.

I won't miss coaching. What you miss is that camaraderie with those boys and the other coaches. You miss that.

I was also very lucky to be a teammate of two of the greatest players to have ever played the game. I learned very early on by playing for Frank Robinson and with Henry Aaron that even the greatest players in the game were just one of the guys.

In order to gain the respect of your players in the locker room, you can't just perform on Saturday. You have to do it consistently during practices, meetings, and in the weight room.

Obviously you have to have talent in order to play so you can't overlook that, but we won't overlook the character issue when it comes to talent because if they have talent and they don't have character, it's going to be very difficult to coach that person.

I didn't understand anything about playing baseball. I started playing, and it was enjoyable. Most of my life, I played with older people on my team, in my league. I learned a lot about life. Every day in my life, I learned something new from somebody.

We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can't change their DNA.

All my best players have been really good guys, which means I can coach them.

Especially young guys, it's always fun to see young guys come in and have that same enthusiasm about playing a certain way and fitting into a certain role and going after guys, trying to get them off their game.

I was lucky enough to play with great platers Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Darren Lockyer and that's where I learned about leadership.

I think TNA has been an excellent locker room. They have a good mentality, they have a good work ethic, and they try really hard. They're obviously really passionate about wrestling, and there's a huge amount of talent.

When Thierry Henry was U19 coach at Arsenal he gave me a lot of advice. His main thing was staying grounded.

I love the game of football so every time I step on the field I'm going to do me. I'm going to go hard for the guys in the locker room.

It's easy to be patient because you have a guy in the room like Eli Manning who comes in every day, one of the first people in the building and one of the last ones to leave and he's been in the league as long as he has. So that's what it takes to continue to get better, and he sets the standard, and I need to reach it.

I can't answer what coaches value me more. I don't really look for that answer. I look to see if my teammates accept who I am as a basketball player and as a person.