Bob Hill Quotations

What this group has gone through since Jan. 4 (the day Bob Weiss was fired as coach), they need another week after the All-Star break. The losing wears on you. They need the break, there is no question about it.

What this group has been through since Jan. 4, they need another week after the All-Star break. I'm sure they're tired. They need a break, there's no question about it.

We're fighting for a spot in the kids' hearts. We win some and lose some. We'll regroup, go back to the drawing board and see what we can do.

We have no depth to play him, so we're just going to try to give him different looks. He's just so big, there are only certain things you can do.

We decided, there at the end, to just use it to work on some things. So we got some good out of it.

When I feel like we need defense, then I'll go to Earl to finish games.

We have a problem playing in the third quarter and that showed tonight. We just fall behind and have to find a way to fight back into it. If I knew why we were a bad third-quarter team, I would make those changes. It's a mystery to me.

We're good enough to be a playoff team with those two, no doubt about it in my mind. We're a different team with them. We're fast. We run and get out on the break. ... The entire climate has changed.

When the minutes behind him aren't what they need to be, I don't have much choice.

When this happens, everybody kind of feels like we all failed and we have to pick up where we left off and try to make something positive out of the season.

(Lewis) just gets beat up physically, he doesn't get any calls. He got hit on the arm. He got slapped in the face and no call. That really hurt. He gets beat up all the time and they just don't protect him at all.

She told me it was time for me to quit my job and follow her. She transferred to Indianapolis and we lived there over 15 years. We both worked at the Army Finance Center there.

Since the trading deadline, this team has come together just like that. We've had five really good performances in terms of togetherness and effort, caring about one another and all of the stuff that's so darn important.

Mike said if a running team ever gets the guy, he's going to be great. With those guys, he never had a chance to play. Mike was right.

Obviously, we have to tweak our defense and hopefully score points off that. We have the ability to run.

Now we have a whole bunch of committed players, where before we had too many dissident guys who just didn't want to be here. So there was no way we were going to build a team until now.

One thing about Ray Allen , at some point he's going to make shots.

If they are the best team in our division... then our division is up for grabs.

If they hadn't been treated so badly under the last administration, there wouldn't have been such a push for this,

I don't golf, so I try to get into as many ballgames in a week as I can. I pitch, but I have to play every other position when I sub. I love playing all the positions.

I didn't want to have to double (team) Ely. Maybe we just didn't think he would do that. The lack of concentration and defensive aggressiveness is hard to understand. I tried everything I could think of. It just wasn't there. We just dug too deep a hole.

I'd like to sign him to another 10-day. That's really going to give us a chance to see him. Anybody who signs a 10-day contract, especially with a younger team, it's hard to get them into the game. But we will work him out (Friday) and I'll get a chance to get a look at him.

I don't know what we can do. I think it's a good team. I think we can be a good team. How good? I don't know.

I don't know what to say. We couldn't get into the game. Pau and Jake were just too much for us inside. We didn't get up and down the court. We weren't active defensively. We didn't move the ball. We were bad. There is no excuse.

I don't know why we can't get a call.

I don't anticipate him doing much for us on the floor this year.

I am really proud of the kid. And I think I got that across to him. When this all went down, the papers in New York all wrote that I (affected his draft status), which wasn't true. And I think he bought into that.

I can't get over Wilcox. I'm going to have to get on him about his assists.

I can't get over Wilcox. He's playing great. He played absolutely great.

I can't get over Wilcox. He's bringing a lot of energy all over the floor. The sky is the limit with him. We just have to work on his footwork and his balance and then we can post him up a little more. But he's a handful.

If anybody's going to get the most out of him at this point in his career, it's going to be Pat. I think that's bad news for the rest of us in the league because when he decides he wants to play he's very difficult to stop, as anybody knows.

I don't think it's a real bad sprain, but it's very sore, so he's not going to play tonight. I assume it will be a day-to-day situation.

If that's the best team in basketball, we're not far away.

He has an enormous ego, which is good because that's why he's (in the NBA). He probably doesn't, behind closed doors, respect Kobe (Bryant) but he's got to respect (coach) Phil (Jackson) so that will kind of keep him in his place. He was the type of kid who had natural basketball instinct. He did things I couldn't teach.

Had we known, we wouldn't have bought it. We were very angry.

He is an active (small forward) and a post-up (guard). But he can do so many things. (Sunday) in practice, he was the best player on the court, bar none.

He never really established himself. I talked to him in the hotel and he seemed sad. But he said it was a good deal for both teams.

We feel is it is our legal and ethical obligation to close the road as soon as possible.

When he was drafted by Chicago, he was trapped behind some awfully good players and just never really got a chance. I think he appreciates the opportunity to get another chance.

When he runs the court he can just floor you. He's finally getting it. In the last five games he's played as well as at any time in his career.

We've got to get Vitaly in shape. And there's a process in that.

We've got to get to Atlanta and get healthy before (tonight) because we've got a lot of guys banged up. We couldn't do much with Tony Parker. We took away his angles to run, but he still managed to get to the basket.

We told (center) Robert Swift at the walkthrough this morning and tonight that Ely is going to take two dribbles to the middle and shoot a jump hook. And that's exactly what he did and he scored 21 points in the first half.

Here's what I really remember about Mike. On Thanksgiving he had us all over in Milan. We all had Thanksgiving at his apartment. It was just a neat day.

His wife was awesome, cooked us this huge meal. It was such a neat day.

His upside is a joke. He could be really special.

He was somewhere else tonight. I don't how else to explain it. He turned it over, couldn't make a shot.

I agree with the suspension. I think the thing the league is looking at, which I appreciate, is this one spilled into the stands. Everybody knows if it spills into the stands it's going to get ugly.

He can run the floor as well as anyone I can remember for a big man. God just said, 'Here you go, you're 6-10.' His damn hands are like gloves. He's quick and strong and he can jump. And he's got a nice touch around the basket. I think he can become a very, very good low-post player.

He comes into a totally unfamiliar situation, has no practice time to learn the system and does what he did out there tonight. That was great. He brought some very positive energy to our team.

He (Johan) made jump shots, and I thought that kid was ... for someone we considered putting in the D-League, he was pretty good.

Kenny Thomas is a nice player, but he shouldn't have 18 rebounds. That just can't happen.

I think it helped us to go with some stuff that was not scripted. We wanted to go with something they wouldn't expect.

It could be fatigue. We all know it's been a long year. Ray Allen still amazes me. He's playing really hard. He competed his heart out, he just couldn't get the ball in the basket.

I think the biggest reason we miss him is the way we're playing now. We're playing a quicker pace and it fits him so well.

I thought we got off to a really good start. We had a presence defensively. We ran the ball. The spacing was good.

I thought that we just couldn't keep them off the boards. We talked about finishing our defensive sets and we'd get them to miss and then they'd get the rebound.

I thought under the circumstances of having only one and a half to two practices and changing systems, we were pretty good out there. Overall, I was really pleased.

I think we would have won the game if we'd just had one of them. I was proud of our effort. I was proud of the execution, which was so much better. We moved the ball. We only had 12 turnovers. We had 22 assists. ... . There were some good things in the second half. They were just too big for us.

I think (we can make a run). We have to improve the defense. The concepts are better but it's going to boil down to them. (Tonight) just can't happen. We can't let them go to the free throw line like that.

I went into the U.S. Army straight out of high school. I spent 21 years in the Army before I retired.

I think there is a sense of relief. We talked at length at breakfast and I got the impression that it was going to happen and it was a good feeling. I have been working as if this thing was going to happen, but it's good to know it is done.

Just an all-around good win. One of our best.

I think Damien Wilkins deserves lots and lots of credit for this one. I was a little surprised that he scored so many points, but I wasn't surprised in his effort or his defense. That's what a guy in his position is supposed to be ready to do.

Our goal right now as a team is to put ourselves in position to do something positive with the season.

Our guys wanted to win the game because of the butt kicking we took in Houston. It wasn't a 'get back.' Neither team is going to the playoffs. It's just two teams playing hard but not playing for anything.

Our big guys couldn't handle Kaman and Brand. I thought we fought and got ourselves back in position to win the game. But we let them back in the game when we could have put them away. Not for the game, but for the spread at halftime.

Our coach was concerned that the interest level was dying down. We had about four or five loyal guys, but you can't play a game with four or five guys.

Like I told them many times and we did it (Wednesday) night, you've got to play with who's available. We'll make the best of the situation.

It feels really good. I'm really proud of (the team) and they responded from day one. ... It's really important that we get better every night and we did tonight.

I think our big guys couldn't handle Kaman and Brand.

I think if we don't make any trades, or we don't change the team at all, you have to look at playing Johan (Petro) and Robert (Swift) and throwing them the ball, putting sets in for them, developing them even further, getting Damien (Wilkins) on the floor even more. I think that is the direction we would go, total development of the younger guys.

I'm humbled by this opportunity the Sonics organization has given me. I've always had great respect for the Sonics franchise.

That was the difference in the game. We just kept fouling. They shot 39 free throws in our building. That had absolutely nothing to do with the officiating. That was us. That clearly where the game was won right there.

That's the kind of game that All-Stars need to play like All-Stars and guys playing for contracts need to play like they want to get paid. That's how we played. I thought our effort was outstanding the whole time.

That's the Russian roulette in the NBA today because of the escalation of salaries. You have to be careful that you give that kind of contract to the right guy. And you never know how money is going to affect a guy's attitude until he has it.

I wasn't happy with the execution of our offense. It's only been three days, but we don't have time to wait.

We just couldn't make a shot. Ray couldn't make a shot. Luke couldn't make a shot. ... We couldn't sink our teeth into the game.

We got back in it again late and actually had a chance to get it. I think, if anything, the game shows how much we miss Luke, especially the way we're playing now. He's just playing great and we really miss him.

We played so much better and we played harder, but it's tough. It was a better performance but I'm disappointed that we lost the (darn) game.

We played pretty well in the first half, then I'm sure our legs got tired. We wouldn't move and we weren't guarding. Away games are tough, but they have to find a way to fight fatigue. That was a winnable game.

We wanted to keep an extra guy in front of Kobe. And keep the last guy open. When the ball was below the foul line, I think we did a really good job of that.

Wade can do so many things. And when O'Neal demands a double team, Wade can kill you. I don't think anybody knew he would be quite this good coming out of Marquette.

We could never plant our feet defensively and get a stop. Most of the time, when it really hurt us, it was the second shots. We'd get them to miss and then we just couldn't get the rebound.

We can't afford to have another training camp now. We've just got to move forward and try to do the best we can the rest of the year.

We needed Robert to have a good game. The team needed Robert to have a good game, the fans probably needed Robert to have a good game, so the second half was great.

We need help at that position. That's a real important position in the league. That's a Band-Aid for us for sure.

Under the circumstances with so many guys out we did a terrific job of keeping ourselves in the game with a chance to win.

Under the circumstances, it was a profound effort. I thought our pick-and-roll defense was horrendous, we have to continue to work on that. We got off to a good start.

Under the circumstances, I can't be much prouder of this group of players' effort. I think they deserved to win this game.

We got off to a good start. We got control of it. We're still playing to create a foundation. These games are important to us.

We haven't had a power forward here since (Shawn) Kemp who can run and jump and play above the rim like he does.

We didn't attack them in the (defensive) press very well, and they took us out of our offense.

We don't have many whiskey drinkers on our team. We've got good guys. Our defensive scheme has to be team oriented. ... That's a work in progress with a team like this that's also very young.

When you're playing playoff teams, it is more of an indicator of where we are and how we're playing.

We're not going to jeopardize the game, but he knows if he's open from 3, he can shoot it. I'm going to try to help him. He's going to try to get it, but it's not going to disrupt what we do as a team.

We didn't quit and fought back. We put ourselves into a position where, if we make a shot here or there, we have a chance to win.

We didn't play. None of us. That was embarrassing. They played their bench because they play Phoenix (tonight). They rested their front-line guys. Our front-line guys couldn't compete with their bench.

We didn't play. None of us. That's embarrassing. Our front-line guys didn't compete with their bench. There was no excuse for our performance. I gave the guys (Thursday) off because of the upcoming schedule and I shouldn't have. As bad as we played, Denver should have beaten us by 50 and they didn't.

We didn't play. None of us. As bad as we played, Denver should have beaten us by 50.