Richard Hamilton Quotations

Usually, in the past, they were hard games for us. This year, we're more focused on those games. We don't want those games to slip away. We know we've got to come out early and set the tempo.

We feel as though we have five superstars. If we want one guy to go out there and average 30, we can do that. But we know what we want at the end, a championship, and we know one guy can't guard five guys.

We ran a pick-and-roll off the top and I am running the baseline and I just got an open shot and I just shot it. That play is really tough to guard if you don't know what's coming.

Oh, yeah, you wanted this game, man. Coach Brown coached us the last two years, and he got a new team, so we definitely wanted to come out and make a statement.

Oh yeah, the system definitely helps me a lot, ... I am able to move more. I am able to cut more. I am able to get a lot more easy baskets.

Mike James is great, man. He won a championship with us and now he's in Toronto making his mark. The guy can play.

No, not at all. We didn't celebrate (anything) at all. We're just trying to get to where we want to get to, and that's the Finals.

Now, we can score points and lock up, too.

I was surprised. They just lost (Game 7 to the Pistons) in the last couple of minutes and they had one of the best records in the NBA, then they switched everything up. I guess they felt they had to get better.

if things go as we think they will, we'll offer you the job.

I ditched everything. Wrist band, my rubber band, my mask. Just trying to get something going. Once I took my mask off, at least I hit a shot.

I didn't ask for it. I thought I was going to have an early vacation, but I got through it.

I don't even know what to say about it. I really don't. I just found out. Hopefully, I can talk to somebody - $15,000? I mean, I don't understand that one.

I don't know why he likes it, just because of the past couple of years I don't know why he likes it. I don't understand that comment.

I am beat up. I am just trying to fight through it. Regardless of how I am shooting, I am still trying to help my team any way I can.

I have always been accustomed to that role, even going back to college. But the great thing is, I have a backcourt mate who's accustomed to it, too. So teams really have to pick their poison as far as who is going to take that shot.

I feel good, especially the last couple of games. He's been putting the ball in my hands and allowing me to create and allowing me to make plays.

What me and him did was all in the heat of the game. When you're out there, you're trying to get the advantage over the guy you're going against. And that's me trying to get my advantage.

We've been waiting to get to the playoffs since the last game last season. So now to get an opportunity to play, we're all excited.

He's definitely looking at it as a challenge. A lot of people believe that he can't win without Shaq. Now he wants to prove to everybody that he can.

There aren't too many people who you'll run into called Rip.

He was everywhere the ball was. He was stealing the ball, blocking shots and getting rebounds.

He comes at you on every possession. You've got to mix it up on him.

I thought we were great defensively. We pressured the ball, got in passing lanes, forced everything baseline. That's what we wanted to do tonight. We weren't worried about our offense. We wanted to come out and try to make a statement.

I threw the ball at the backboard. Guys do that all the time when they're frustrated. I thought I might get a delay of game, at the worst maybe one technical foul. But to throw me out of the game? That was absolutely crazy.

I thought that technical foul was definitely the turning point.

My thing is, your job is to coach the team. Your job is not to say stuff to me, and that's what got me (ticked) off.

Nah. Not at all. It's a whole new, different season.

I tell you, that's crazy. Just to think of it or look at it ... that's great, that's great.

I think he might have gotten down. I think he lost his confidence a little bit. I didn't know that he really believed that he really belonged here but this year he's playing with a lot more confidence.

Man, we've been playing a lot of games.

I'm in a great rhythm. I feel good. It really doesn't matter to me, because the playoffs are a whole different thing.

We handle a lot of transactions with very few problems,

Usually, these games are tough to play, because you're looking at a week off. But our energy was great. We didn't want to lose two in a row, and we wanted to make a statement.

We just didn't hit our shots in the second half. That's why they are a top 10 team. They have a seasoned coach, and they did a good job of pulling off the win.

We got the win. They played great and we just kind of traded baskets with them until the end.

The peak of an NBA player is 29, 30? So we're still young. We can go as far as we want to go.

We pressured the ball, we got into the passing lanes and we forced everything to the baseline. We were great defensively, and that's really all we worried about. We really weren't worried about our offense. We just wanted to come out and make a statement on the defensive end.

We didn't show up. We all know that. We let that game slip away.

We don't look at what the Chicago Bulls did. We just want to get home-court advantage.

We knew last time (here) we had a 10-point lead (in the fourth) and D-Wade got hot and we didn't want that to happen again.

The only thing I know is he's supposed to coach his team. He don't need to be on the sideline running his mouth, trying to talk trash from the bench. He's not a player no more, he's a coach. His job is to coach his team, not to have little slick stuff to say from the bench.

We've been looking forward to the playoffs since the end of last season.

We kind of slept on them down there. We can't afford to do that this time around; their record speaks for itself. We didn't have a chance down there. Once the ball went up, it seemed like we were down by 10 or 15 points. That just gives us more motivation, more awareness that we can't come out lackadaisical.

We just knuckled down. We still felt we had an opportunity to win. Our bench did a great job of keeping us in the game. When we came in the game in the fourth quarter, we just wanted to execute every time down the floor and we did that.

What was he doing, man? The ref is supposed to be on the outside of the court, not running down the middle of the court. Luckily, nobody got hurt.

We just never like to be satisfied being satisfied. Every game, we've got to play hungry.

We just want to keep it going, ... Guys here are very energetic. Everybody's pulling for each other. We want to win as many games as possible, and we did a great job tonight.

We just want to come out and stay focused and try to win each game. I mean, it's a great streak. But to us, it's a game. We don't look at what the Chicago Bulls did or anything like that. We just want to get home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

We just wanted to put on the gas when we got a lead. We did a great job with that.

We just stuck with it. We kept playing, and then we made the key stops we needed down the stretch.

You go against these guys every night, there's not a whole lot of conversation. To get an opportunity to be on the same team and have fun with 'em is a great thing.

Everything was just like I thought it would be. It was fun and it was exciting. If I didn't have the jitters then it wouldn't have felt right. I definitely had the jitters.

I've been playing this game too long to know what that is.

Things like that, that's more for the fans and for you all media types to write about and talk about. The guys in that locker room, and I mean this, we don't talk about things like that. ... We talk about winning games and what we need to do to win games.

It was very calm, ... Coach said, 'We still got a lot of time. We're still going to win this game.'

It was weird. I really felt a sense of relief when I stepped on that floor. It gave me a chance to forget about everything that was going on off the court. I hadn't smiled all day until I got on that court.

The thing about us, we didn't panic, we just stayed with it. We felt as though, if we just stick with our offense, good things will happen.

The thing about it is, we've got five superstars out there. We want one guy to go out there and average 30, we can do that. But we know what we want at the end. We want to win a championship.

Some were greatly offended, some were terribly amused, but mostly they were shocked that he did it knowing we're coming up, ... How do you tell someone, especially a psychologist, who should know better, that he's making people uncomfortable?

This is the best Lindsey has looked, with his energy and his pressure on the ball and getting the ball to the right guys at the right time. I thought he really looked great (Saturday). This is the first time of him not being sick, not being hurt or anything else.

They played hard and they didn't quit. They have a bunch of young guys that played with a lot of energy. At times, we didn't put the pedal to the metal when we should have, but the only thing that we look at is getting the win at the end of the night.

They're a good team, man, no doubt. Michael Redd is a great scorer who can really hurt you if you don't guard him right. We're going to have to play tough to make sure he doesn't get off on us.

It was the heat of the battle. You've got guys really trying to get an edge over the other guy. I didn't think I was going to get a ?T.' I know I fouled him, but I didn't think I deserved a technical.

It was a tough decision. Anytime you can play for your country, you want to. You watch it since you're a kid. But sometimes you have to make a decision.

It's a play that offsets the defense a little bit because you come from one side to the other. I know (Allen) didn't see me because that play is really tough to guard if you don't know it's coming.

It's getting better. I'm happy that we had a couple of days before the next game. Hopefully I'll feel good by tomorrow night.

It's fun to win scoring titles and things like that, but it's more fun to win. That's the only message I'm trying to send.

It's fun to play in this offense, ... I'm allowed to move. I don't just come off one screen. I can come off two or three screens. It allows me to keep moving and stay in motion and makes me elevate my game even more.

It's fun. Our teams are all not in the same conferences, so this is the chance for them to play each other. And it's in the NCAA tournament, so that means the stakes are gonna be higher.

It's secure, it's convenient, and it's popular with the public, ... We have very few problems. We get our money every week, we don't have bad checks, and we hardly have any overdrafts. This system takes care of itself.

That's our only goal. If we don't win it all, then our season isn't a success.

That's the best Lindsey has looked. With his energy, his pressure on the ball, getting the ball to the right people at the right time, I thought he played great. It was the first time he's not been sick or hurt.

It's sore. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. But these are the playoffs. You've got to fight through it. I'm going to get through it.

Everyone is healthy and ready for the party. That's good.

Everybody says we don't have no superstars. No, we've got five superstars. If we wanted to have a guy averaged 30 points a game, we could do that. But we want bigger things. We want a championship and we know one guy can't guard five.

It's definitely amazing. Anybody that comes into the league with that much hype and is able to man-up to that and play so well so early when people probably thought it would take him longer ? it's kind of crazy.

It scared me because it hurt for a couple of minutes, but I just pushed myself through it. I didn't want to sit out too long and have it tighten up.

It kind of reminded you of the playoffs where anybody who's anybody was at the game. It was exciting, the building was exciting, and we wanted to come out and play how we can play.

Not at all. We can only be concerned with ourselves. We are just trying to win every game. We aren't thinking about anybody else's record but our own. All you can do when you have a chance to play these teams is to beat them.

It was a great night. We missed a lot of opportunities to put them away. I think we missed a lot of wide-open shots. But at the end of the night when it was time to dig down we did.

It was a crazy game, but we didn't panic. We just stayed with it and things started to happen. We've won a lot of games this year. We know the main thing is to get the win.

It swelled up, but that's what we got Arnie for.

It was just a game we wanted to get, ... We didn't want to start off slow and sluggish. Flip did a good job of putting us in spots and allowing us to make plays.

In my career, going back to Connecticut, I've never run into a point guard like Chauncey. He wants the ball in his hands in every tough situation, and he hits big shots and still keeps his teammates involved.

In all my years, going back to Connecticut, I've never had a point guard like Chauncey Billups. I've never played with one who wanted the ball in his hands in every tough situation and who could make big shots and keep his teammates involved.

I know what's a good shot. I rarely take any bad shots. I'm not just going to come down and raise up a three. I'm very selective on what shots I take.

I'm beat up. I got a deep thigh bruise and a bad ankle. I'm just trying to fight through it. That's my whole goal. Regardless of how I'm shooting, if I can do any other thing to help my team win, if that's defend or whatever, just being out there, then I'll be out there.

If we've got a team down, we've got to keep them down. We can't play with them, we can't fool with them. All our losses probably this year, we had a team down 15 or 16 points. So when we've got them down, we've got to keep a foot on the pedal.

I know before I get the ball if the shot is going in or not. It's all a rhythm shot. The follow through and the shot are the easy part. It's just getting there and stopping on a dime, and being in the right place at the right time, and getting the shot off.

I guess we have to get used to it. In the exhibition season, it seems like they (referees) are trying to make a statement.

I think my goal was just to come out and have fun. Don't worry about playing in front of friends and family. Just do what got us there - playing together.

His energy was off the hook, ... He rebounded. He had five blocked shots in the first quarter. We just fed off that.

He's just a great coach, we love him to death. We just wished him luck.

I don't think I needed to be ejected and I don't know why I was. Maybe at that point (referee Dan Crawford) was just trying to clean up the game.

Hopefully, I can talk to someone. $15,000? I don't understand that one. ... I don't think that was fair.

I come from a place where this doesn't happen. To be here is unbelievable because when everyone tells you, you can't do something, you can't do something, you can't do something, and you get the opportunity to be in the NBA, to win a championship, and now, to be an All-Star, it's unbelievable.

I am able to use different strengths that I am good at, like back-door cuts, ... It's just a lot of moving without the ball, and that's something that I have always done pretty well.

The good thing about us is, we feel we've got five superstars out there. Everybody says we don't have a superstar. No, we've got five superstars.

All that other stuff, best record and all of that, doesn't mean anything. This is the time we've been waiting for since we lost the last game last year.