Karl-Anthony Towns Quotes

My dad has been my coach since I was seven years old - from 7 to 18 is when he coached my club team - and so it was always in the family. He introduced me to soccer at a young age and also kind of molded me into a good player at a young age, too. Which then I grew to love the game and be as passionate as he was.

My first target is not to win: it's to develop young players with our work. That was my first idea when I started as a coach, because with this work come results.

I think, as a coach, you've got to do what your players can do.

Our philosophy is to give the young players a chance for the future because they are our future.

I always tried to be an all-around player. In college, I felt like I needed to add to my game to get to another level, to get to the NBA. The NBA has really turned to positionless basketball, so it was very important to me to have an all-around game so I could stand out in front of other guys.

I love it when coaches don't talk about which position they see me at. When they just refer to me as a basketball player and talk about all of the different positions they can see me playing in, I definitely listen more.

That has never been a priority for me and I want the players to deal with a harder situation in practice than they'll ever have to deal with in the game. Maybe that's part of our ball security philosophy.

People were always saying how modern players need to be able to play in two or three positions, and those words stuck in my head. I think that I can do just that.

I learned a lot from Arsene Wenger, especially his tactical systems and how to plan things game to game, week to week and month to month.

The problem in Sweden is that, when the players are younger, they are not allowed to develop their own style and skills.

When I got in this profession, as a young guy, as a college coach at San Jose State, I knew right then that I had a passion to do this, to touch people's lives, to develop young men in the game of football.

At a club like City, you cannot forget about the kids that have come through and are still emerging from the academy. We can't forget about them and we should always keep that in mind with an eye to the future.

I began training the young players at Nova Iguacu and at Boavista, and I enjoyed it. I had always wanted to be a coach, and this accelerated the process.

I know and the manager knows my best position is centre-half but if I can learn two other positions if needed then it's great for me as a player and my development.

I've been blessed that my dad taught me at a young age about versatility and how to not be specialized in one area, so it's made my transition from each step in my career very comfortable because I had the fundamentals and the foundation to do anything the coach needed me to do.

You get different philosophies in coaching, usually depending on what position the coach himself played.

In the NBA, you're taking a bunch of different talents, and you're managing them. You have to give them a system; you have to give them a belief. That's why coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are so great: because they gave the team confidence in the system and in their ability to execute night in and night out.

Versatility and being dynamic in the NFL is what you need to have because there are only so many roster spots. So, being able to help out in a lot of spots and on special teams is key.

I would have to be in a very different place in my life to coach basketball. I'll always work out and be in the gym.

For me, the training has to be a mixture of hard work - it has to have a good structure, a good base - but also, I don't want all my players to be like machines.

I have my philosophy in my mind: you need to adapt for each moment and each team.

Every coach has his own philosophy.

It was lucky I came from City; I'd say their philosophy is quite similar. Barcelona are a lot more advanced because they are the ones who created it, but they have a history of members of staff at Manchester City who worked here.

My dad's always been a coach and one of my coaches.

People often talk about a coach's philosophy, but generally, I think managers look at the players they have and then decide on their style.