Basketball Fundamentals Quotes

Duke recruits the best basketball players. They don't recruit dunkers or highlight makers. They recruit good basketball players.

Ninety percent of the coaches in the NBA are guards, and there aren't very many big men people coaching, I happen to be one of them and when I coached, everybody on my team, including the guards, had a hook shot, so that it was their bail out shot.

I have an incredible amount of basketball knowledge, and I think a lot of that is derived from having a Hall of Fame college basketball coach who was very knowledgeable of the game and I had a great high school coach who was also very knowledgeable.

You hear all the time about European players playing the game. These players that come over at 17, 18 and 19, they just don't all of a sudden become skilled. From the time they were little fellas, they learned the fundamentals of the game. Let them create.

One-on-one is different than actually going through picks, hitting the floor, playing 5-on-5, getting back in transition, making quick moves without thinking about it.

Passing the basketball - I feel like I've gotten better with that.

Manute Bol taught my family the game of basketball.

I've always been a high-percentage shooter, obviously because I'm dunking and laying the ball up.

Back when I played, basketball was all about fundamentals, about hustling, getting those loose balls, all those rebounds under the basket. That equals up to 12, 14, 16 points. You can lose a game with that much. It's different watching basketball now. People don't play the same way. It doesn't matter if you score, if you can't stop the other team from scoring. Our coach used to kick our ass if we didn't. I was told if you saw more of the other team color under the basket than your own team color, you ain't doing your job. Everybody should be under the board, trying to get that ball.

You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him.

Conditioning is essential to success in basketball.

When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.

I'm just here to be a leader and work on my game, work on my jump-hooks, my low-post game and just continue to get better. That's all that matters.

I had this DVD that my coach in Cameroon had mailed to me when I first came to America. It was an hour-long tape of Hakeem Olajuwon and some other legendary big men. I probably watched that DVD every single day for three years.

Most lay-ups and two foot jump shots around the goal are missed by not putting the ball up high enough on the backboard

Be tough. As a big guy, it's what your teammates expect from you, to be strong. Set good screens offensively and box out at the other end. It's a simple technique. I learned it when I was little.

Football comes naturally to me, but basketball is a challenge, that's why I like it so much.

I'll see some random guy and really like how he's locking his wrist when he's shooting or how a guy is catching the ball. It can be a little reminder that that's something I have to think about today.

Everybody in the NBA works on their game. I just tried to follow that lead when I was in high school, college - and now.

You look at the NBA: there's all these young kids that are drafted on potential. They go to bad teams, they're in bad locker rooms, and now we got this analytics stuff that doesn't teach kids how to play. We've got these workout coaches that don't teach kids how to play basketball.

Basketball was every day of my life. Wake up with a ball - sometimes I'd sleep with it because someone told me that was better for you.

Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It's stupid. It doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post. They don't know the fundamentals of the game. It's stupid.

To improve my free throws I went back to the mechanics and really learning how to have form and shoot the ball, so I have to get comfortable with that.

Once I got to college, I didn't know defensive rotations; my footwork was sloppy. I used to travel every other play.

I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.