Basketball Evolution Quotes

I always thought the objective of basketball was to get the maximum amount of movement to get the easiest shot, closest to the basket. With the three-point rule, the whole strategy changes, and you make a move and then throw it 30 feet out, where somebody takes a standing jump shot.

Every season, I've adjusted. My first couple of years it was still banging in the post and doing all the nitty gritty stuff. Over the years, it's changed to bigs being able to shoot and run the floor and be more agile, which is good for me because I'm a very agile guy.

The game has gotten a lot faster. I was anticipating changes as far back as when I first came into the league, when the spacing was changing, and big guys were playing in different spaces on the floor. But when that change actually happens, and it happens so quickly, it's just amazing.

Marc Gasol, he's more of a true center. There are guys who play that traditional center role, but the game is also played differently now.

The 3-point line has changed the game so much. The day of the big man, unless you're extraordinary good, is not numbered, but certainly you gotta be a lot more versatile to play the game today. You gotta be able to really run up and down the court.

To be honest, I'm looking at today's game, and I put myself in that position and how I would benefit from the faster basketball, more threes, catch-and-go opportunities, attacking the paint with more space, that's what kind of gets me juiced up and riled up when I watch today's game.

You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot - a three-point shot - or a dunk.

I used to be a wait-at-the-rim big, more of a Rudy Gobert-type of player.

When the NBA first resorted to it in 1979, I must admit I thought it was a circus rule, the equivalent of asking players to be shot out of cannons or swallow swords, something borrowed from the stepchild ABA with its red, white and blue basketballs. A 3-point line? The beautiful game of basketball didn't need a clown shot.

The league has changed in so many ways. There are no point guards anymore, there are no centers anymore; it's all positionless basketball.

I think basketball has changed tremendously and for the better. I think that obviously the game is better. I think the skill of the players are better, the strength, the overall athleticism, the teamwork involved. I think coaching is better. We have more exposure for our game than ever. You know, our sport has grown significantly in really the last five years. It's pretty amazing.

The one thing about basketball is that it continues to evolve and I love it so much. It does so much for me in my life. I've played on every level and I've been fortunate enough to be around greatness on every level.

Just seeing the progression, the evolution of the NBA game, I feel like you have a lot of big men shooting 3s.

I think I'm changing the game. In that sense, I'm what Steph Curry is to basketball. Don't get me wrong: I don't necessarily think Steph Curry is the best basketball player, but he changed the game, so he's going to always go down as being remembered. Now everyone wants to shoot the 3 and shoot it from deep.

We talk about players of yesteryear, guys who could play or couldn't play, and I think it's ridiculous to try to even compare people... The things that you can do in basketball today that you couldn't even do then... you can carry the ball; you walk all over the place.

For me it's just amazing that I grew up watching Tim Duncan and KG and Kobe and Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson and all those guys and now it's like, 'Man, I can't believe they actually got old.' It's like they actually walked away. It's crazy to think about, but the game has to keep moving.

Having played in the league during the '80s, '90s, and the new millennium (old, I know), I had the chance to see firsthand how the best point guards of our time played the game.

It used to be you a needed a true center to win championships, but now the point guard position holds just as much weight.

The game is definitely evolving. It's becoming more guard-oriented. But, at the same time, we've got a lot of big guys who still kick butt. We'll never be extinct.

I'm athletic enough to do guard stuff, so if you were to mold me into having guard moves and footwork in a big's body, that's revolutionizing the game.

I don't like 7-footers shooting threes, it's a disrespect to the game for me.

More and more teams are, in the vernacular, 'going small,' with only one big man down deep. Good grief, the position of power forward is in the process of going the way of short shorts.

That's what Europe brought to the NBA: the passing skills, the shooting skills.

Well, history always repeats itself, so there's probably a baby Shaq out there in a crib somewhere, sipping on a bottle, and when he gets old enough, he'll bring the post-up center back.

Shooting is a lost art, but nobody wants to see nobody shoot all day. You want to see somebody break somebody off the dribble. That's today game, and that's what I try to do.