John Salley Quotes

The hand check has always been a part of pro basketball.

When I played, I would never, ever try to run Reggie Miller off the line because I knew Reggie. If I ran at him, and I was trying to run him off the line, I was going to get kicked.

People that know me realise what kind of player I am. I'm a front-foot defender; I like a tackle, but I'm not malicious, and I don't go in to hurt.

Why should I change my game if I don't even get a yellow card?

Of course the defenders are trying to be physical with me. They look at me, 7-3, skinny, they try to be physical.

In my day, defenders played you with two hands and an elbow. You're not getting by a guy, especially if he has an elbow and a hand on you and is a strong defensive player.

I have heard what has been said, but most of the time, I recover the ball without making a foul.

What you really need to do is just stop the 3-point shooting, make sure they don't set a record on you. Be physical.

Sometimes I see it [a foul by an Arsenal player], but I say that I didn’t see it to protect the players and because I could not find any rational explanation for what they did.

You have to foul me to stop me, period.

(The Hack-A-Shaq is) just a way of telling me that you can't stop me. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I don't know if I've ever had a memorable body check. It's not really part of my game.

Quarterbacks are untouchable nowadays. If you hit a quarterback too hard, or if you fall on him with too much weight - which is a judgment thing from a professional standpoint - you're going to get flagged.

We guard the shooter. A lot of guys shoot way behind the 3-point line. We guard where the shooter is, not where the line is.

There is no question that in the '50s and '60s, black players got thrown at more. That's not a negative comment. It may come out that way, but that's the way it was. Hitting another player was part of the game; hitting a player in the head is not.

I'm a lock-up defender and I believe strongly in my defense, so I don't need to take cheap shots at guys to get an edge.

Well, I tried to play defense. But when they did call a foul on Shaq, I tried to make sure they called a foul.

I look at like this: Any player I guard, long twos or shots like that, if they make them I still think that's good defense. You can't make those shots at a high percentage the whole game. It's just hard to make long two-pointers, step-backs, fadeaways, off-the-dribble crossovers.

In basketball, there's a lot of pushing, grabbing, and shoving going on that nobody else sees. That's why I'm training with MMA fighter Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone.

In this day and age, in modern goalkeeping, if you come out and you catch the ball and you get smacked, you're going to get the foul.

The competitive spirit of basketball is slowly leaking out. Taking pride in one-on-one defense is slowly leaking out. It's more about selling calls and flopping.

Malice is part of football, I wouldn't call it illegitimate.

If someone makes contact with you, it is a foul, and you are going to go down.

Hard fouls are a part of playoff basketball, and I think that's how basketball should be. I don't take those fouls personally.

I became a better talker on the floor, being at Duke, being in leadership with Coach K, and I think I got better defensively as the season progressed.