Player Quotes - Page 66

You can't be considered a great player unless you win Wimbledon. That's the way it is.

I was never happy that my injuries cut my career short and ultimately forced my decision to step away from tennis. I have enjoyed my time away from the court, a period that has allowed me to experience a different side of life. However, I miss the game and the challenge of competing at the highest level of tennis, and I want to gauge whether I can stay healthy and compete against today's top players.

The chess player who develops the ability to play two dozen boards at a time will benefit from learning to compress his or her analysis into less time.

Even when I went to the playground, I never picked the best players. I picked guys with less talent, but who were willing to work hard and had the desire to be great.

I think he [Raul] is the greatest player to have ever played the game. He walks on the turf and astounds. It is utterly amazing.

When I buy, I buy players for the long term, not the short term because I do respect the club a lot and also the other clubs.

Without getting real personal, we liked our bass player Ed. He was a great guy and he was a good bass player but his playing was suited for a different style of band.

[Jack Nicklaus] was the first to bring in course management. He could go to a course and tell you within one stroke what was going to win. He used to set his sights on that because he could shoot it. He was the only player I know who, if he decided he wanted to win a tournament, could go out and do it. No one will ever be as popular as Arnold Palmer and no one will ever come close to Jack as a player.

The Wyoming game in 1974, my third year as head coach. My first year, we were 7-4; the second year, we went 5-6; the third year started out 0-3-1. Some of the players got together and had a team meeting to get a few things straightened out. Starting with the Wyoming game, we won 6 straight games and won our first conference championship, the second in BYU's history. We went to the Fiesta Bowl, the first of many bowl games for the Cougars.

I went to many coaching clinics, talked to other coaches, read articles, books, etc. Anything I could do that would help me prepare to be the best coach possible. Fortunately, the coaches I had as a player were good men and were excellent role models in setting priorities and relating to the team members and coaching staff.

I used to play my records aloud until one night my mother was like, "This is too loud. I'm not having it," and so I put on headphones. But the headphones didn't stretch all the way to my bed from the record player, so I had to sleep on the floor in order to hear the records. I slept on the floor right next to the record player until I was probably 19 years old.

Introvert conversations are like jazz. Each player gets to solo for a nice stretch before the other player comes in and does his solo.

People ask me to describe how I play, and the most obvious answer is that I'm a jazz influenced guitar player. But I'm not a jazz guitar player. Wes Montgomery was a jazz guitarist, Joe Pass was a jazz guitarist (laughs).

When I was a player, I didn't expect my teammates to play the way I did. I did expect them to work hard every day and get better. And I never learned anything by losing.

I've never asked a player if they would sign my shoe. I've certainly had players come up, even before the game has started, and say, "Hey, after the game, can we trade jerseys?" It's kind of like, "Well, let's get through the game first and we'll deal with that later."

Bad guys turned informer. Good guys didn't - no matter when, no matter what.

Why were so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as facial tissues? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their made-up tales.

There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players.

I was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I've been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the Finals. I'm tired of being second. I'm not going to settle for that. I'm done with it.

There's an old saying,'It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.' It's usually the player who misses those three-footers, not the putter.

I asked the players: 'Do you want to enjoy the game? Or do you want to enjoy after the game?' The players told me they wanted to enjoy after the game so I said: 'OK, then we will enjoy after the game'.

I would rather play with 10 men than wait for a player who is late for the bus.

I am and will always be just simply a basball player, my tomb stone will just say. Baseball.

Every American college student goes to college with a hard drive. They take their laptop. There's not a CD player in sight.

When I was playing I felt tired all the time. My recovery period was a lot longer than the other players. They'd be ok after an hour - I'd have to stay in bed till the next session.