Player Empowerment Quotes

I've always had a good relationship with superstar players. I don't really demand the ball a lot.

With the coaches, you don't want to hear everybody saying, 'Move over! Back up! Do this!' Let's find out what the players know.

I'm going to actively fight for players' rights. Not while I'm in college. I'm always going to keep a consistent track record of what I believe in. But I don't have the clout or the means.

It's a business when the NBA cuts you, trades you or waives you. But you're a villain, as a player, when you take your future and your happiness in your own hands and it's unfortunate.

I think every player should think that he's a difference maker.

This was how Johan Cruyff worked. He was demanding a lot, but when you got there, and you were in his team, he was an incredible protector. He would push and push you, and then he would protect you. He was a master at handling players. He knew when you needed to be pushed or protected.

Me as a person, I'm not the president of the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). I don't even know what to say. I'm not like this perfect, buttoned-up, suit-and-tie guy.

The fact that Phil Jackson asked a young kid when he didn't have to and said, 'Hey, do I have permission to coach you?' Those are very powerful lessons that you learn. That's only happened to me a couple times in my entire career, that coaches would actually ask me that question. That just lets me know that he saw me for who I was.

I have never made a game that wasn't explicitly about empowering players to tell their own story.

I'm a believer that players are good self-directors, and I think one thing that's good about video games is they can direct their own experience.

The coaches are there to bounce ideas off and stuff, but at the end of the day, they let us be us. We make our match, and we do 'us', you know what I mean?

In fact, one of the conversations I had with Jason Garrett, you know, sometimes X's and O's get so complicated, and a coach gets so into that that he forgets the most important thing is players win ballgames. Make sure that the players are properly equipped and motivated to do their jobs.

To show my quarterbacks how much I believe in them, I let them pick their favorite plays that we'll run in the game. On the nights before a game we'll sit down in a hotel conference room and we'll have six third-down calls for certain distances.

If we can't find the next technological breakthrough, well, maybe we can be better than anyone else with how we treat our players and how we connect with players and the relationships we develop and how we put them in positions to succeed.

The Red Sox believe what's written. If it's written that I should be traded, more times than not, that's what ends up happening. Look at the people who've gotten traded around here. It's not their doing.

Every day in practice I have to lead by example. But at the same time, when people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, you're responsible as a player. You can't rely on the coaches to say everything. The players have to be responsible and take ownership of the team. Every day in practice there are situations where you need to say something and get a message across, but do it in the right way.

My coaching philosophy? Determine your players talents and give them every weapon to get the most from those talents.

I've been a bit surprised, and encouraged, by the NBA's support for athletes that speak out. Compared to the NFL, it's night and day.

My best coach was Rudy Tomjanovich because he asked the players what they wanted to do. He felt we had a feel for the game.

Don't ever ask a player to do something he doesn't have the ability to do. He'll just question your ability as a coach, not his as an athlete.

A player-led team is better than a coach-led team, no doubt.

I'll say it again: you've got to put the argument back in the game. They're trying to make baseball mechanized, a machine. They're ruining baseball.

I want to be a free agent. I think everybody in the NBA dreams to be a free agent at least one time in their career. It's like you have an evaluation period. It's like if I'm in the gym and I have all the coaches, all the owners, all the GMs come into the gym and just evaluate everything I do. So yes, I want that experience.

Every single player needs that eye-to-eye connection, I'm sure. They want to know what is expected of them, but it's not just me telling them what to do. It's about asking, 'What are your strengths? What do you feel? What can you give to the team?'

It was a really empowering thing playing with Golden State, because they let the players play and they let the players communicate and they let the players decide things.