What kind of respect do I get? ... Just because I'm a physical player, it's O.K. to come at me and do what you want? Hey, it's a hockey game. It's not figure skating. You know what? I can take a hit and I can give a hit. I don't care who it is. No one gets a free ride out there. I don't get a free ride, and no one gets a free ride from me.
People call me all the time and say, “Man, your players aren't signed yet.” Well, it doesn't really matter what time dinner is when you're the steak.
All Chess players should have a hobby
Big time players make big time plays in big time games.
Sad to hear Paul Scholes is retiring, great player, world class player, the English Zizou.
There's nobody fitter at his age, except maybe Raquel Welch.
The biggest journalistic game-changer of our time has been the rise of social media and the overgrowth of faux news sources - league- and team-sponsored blogs, player tweets, fanboy sites, rumor mills - churning bits of information and speculation into a clattering fog storm. Who will cut through the drivel and whim-wham to tell us what's really going on?
One gets tired of the role critics are supposed to have in this culture: It's like being the piano player in a whorehouse; you don't have any control over the action going on upstairs.
There are loads of players I could name who are 16-16 looked like world beaters but then at 21-22 they are subs in non-league. There comes a time in your career when the pennies got to drop, where you've got to understand decisionmaking at the right, poignant moments in the game. When to pass, when to dribble, when to shoot. Game-changing moments, can you be the guy that sits there and takes the responsibility. And the great players do.
It is a profound mistake to imagine mistake to imagine that the art of combination depends only on natural talent, and that it cannot be learned. Every player knows that all (or almost all) combinations arise from a recollection of familiar elements.
On a good team there are no superstars. There are great players who show they are great players by being able to play with others as a team.
If I can be half the hockey player that Bobby Orr was, I'll be happy.
Most important thing, I am not a player who win the serves because I serve aces or free points, no. When I winning a lot of serves is because I am playing well from the baseline. That's why.
Get off, you look ugly (to a blood splattered player during a game)
I probably visualize myself, the shots I'm going to get in the game, how I'm going to play defense, what we have to do to stop the other team's best player, what it's going to take out of me, the whole aspect of the game.
Doping in English football is restricted to lager and baked beans with sausages. After which the players take to the field, belching and farting. English football culture is one of pure, intense competition, and that's why I have always preferred it to Italy.
For [Malcolm Subban] I know that he's the No. 1 ranked goalie in North America and the world right now, he's got a great opportunity. He's got to enjoy this whole process because it only comes once. Not that many players get the opportunity to walk up on that stage and get that jersey.
You have to teach now - tell a kid how to box out, tell him how to pass, teach him footwork. Players don't understand that anymore.
I played when I played, and played, I think, against the greatest players in the greatest time in the history of basketball.
I think Messi is the best forward in the world. It is very difficult to play against him. But he is not only a forward, he is moving everywhere. He is a very good player.
I usually dig the single-digit numbers, but No2 is retired. I'm going to change it up and wear No10. I'm going to wear it for Messi, my favourite soccer player. I've been playing a lot of FIFA lately and watching the games. He's the best little guy to do it and I've got to be the best little guy to do it at No10 in the NBA. That's my goal.
When I started, (players) were making $4,000. Now, they don't get out of bed and they already make $10,000.
I think being honest with one another creates an environment that's comfortable. You want to know where you stand, whether you're doing a good job. The players know what's going on before you do. They're trying to see if you're going to do something about it. And when it's not like that, everybody is pissed off, because they know that people can get away with stuff and that nobody is keeping them in line. That's not a team to me.
Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That's the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.
At the moment we've only got 16 first-team players and my initials stand for Mick McCarthy, not Merlin the Magician (the new Wolves manager gets the excuses in early!)
