#NBALondon Sights and soundbites from the Hawks and Nets
Open media practice at the O2 Arena on Wednesday for the Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets provided a lot of interesting sights and sounds ahead of their regular season clash tonight, which rounds off the 2013-14 NBA Global Games schedule.
Here were some of the highlights courtesy of Keith Firmin and Rob Jeffries:
Soundbites:
Brooklyn Nets’ head coach Jason Kidd with his thoughts on how they are treating this London trip, and how they will approach the game considering Atlanta’s development since they defeated them ten days ago.
“It’s not a pressure – it’s just basketball. We have an opportunity to win and showcase our talent, the guys are excited to be here and get a win.”
“We’ll look at the tape and we know they’ll make some adjustments, but we’ll be ready for that. They are a talented team, one of the top four teams in the East, so we have our hands full, but we know all about injuries!”
Paul Millsap of the Atlanta Hawks talking about team-mate, Elton Brand:
“He’s a professional. He’s come in every day with a positive attitude. He’s a great guy to learn from.”
Millsap addressing the fact that they are the ‘home team’ for the O2 game, even though London is over 4,000 miles from Atlanta) and their road record is 6-13:
“It’s still a home game, we’re the home team. Hopefully it doesn’t affect us at all and hopefully we play like it.”
Brooklyn Nets’ Shaun Livingston on playing under former point guard, Jason Kidd:
“It’s helped me tremendously. He was one of the best floor leaders to play the game when he played. Being able to pick his brain, I’m out on the court asking him what he thinks, what he sees because he ran the position for 20 years and was one of the best at it.”
The Nets’ Jason Terry talking about his own form and the form of his team:
“I’m coming off an injury last summer so my form has been slow but the progression is good now, starting to get some strength and mobility back in my leg and I’ll be flying around all of the place soon.”
“We’ve had a lot of injuries early, the chemistry hasn’t quite been where it needed to be but we’ve put all that behind us now and in 2014, you’ve seen a different team and different approach from our perspective.”
“I think we’re starting to take on the identity of our coach who’s a very strong, tough minded individual.”
The Jet boldly predicting bright things for the Nets this season:
“The Nets WILL do great things in the Eastern Conference. I foresee us as a top two or three team in the Eastern Conference.”
Reggie Evans on how long he’s growing his beard:
“I’m not touching my hair until probably the playoffs…” (What if you don’t make the play-offs?) “Huh?! Speak English!…”
Reggie Evans on summing Kevin Garnett up in three words:
“Uuuuuuummmmmmmmmm…oh man…three words…oh man…oh wow…man..um…Hard worker. Passionate about the game. Man, that list goes on.”
Reggie Evans on KG’s work ethic:
“Man everybody works hard. A lot of people work hard. I like KG’s work ethic. Why? Just knowing this is his 19th year and he’s still going hard before practice, he’s still in the weight room. That’s motivation for me. And I really look up to that. A lot of people look up to what they see in the game but they don’t get to see what goes on behind closed doors, so I like that. One day I came in and I told my wife ‘I’m tired, I don’t feel like doing nothing. It’s just one of those days, baby’ And she was like ‘Just chill’ and I’m like ‘I’m going to chill out today’ and then as soon as I get in the gym, I see him shooting and I’m like ‘oohhhh!’. But I ended up practicing and when I practiced I felt good…so when you see stuff like that, it’s motivation.”
Will Kyle Korver hate London if it’s where the streak ends?
“Probably not! My approach every night is you have to make that first one, if not try and make the second one!”
Jeff Teague explaining what Atlanta’s approach has been since the loss of Al Horford:
“We knew we were going to be a solid team; when Al got hurt, somebody just had to pick it up, step up, not play his role or do what he did – just help us to be a better team.”
Hawks’ Pero Antic talks about the differing mentality between the US and Europe when it comes to facing up to defeats in basketball:
“The NBA is totally different; you lose and you turn your attention to the next game, you focus for that game. It’s a long season. In Europe, you lose, everybody’s sad, mad – but this is a normal game we’re going to try and win with our system and strategy. We lost against them on their court, we know who we’re playing against.”
Sights:
Kyle Korver running through a basic three-point shooting drill:
Atlanta Hawks scrimmage:
