Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Nick Nurse - Page 2

In a game, I'm locked in. I maybe notice three rows in the stands the arena over, and that's it.

Long time ago, we used to sit around eating popcorn and drawing up plays.

I don't think when I decided I didn't want to be an accountant any more that I was necessarily saying I wanted to be an NBA head coach. I just really wanted to figure out if I could do it.

I know the 'big spending club v. smaller club' theme is popular in the Premier League. I don't think about it - we are 30 teams trying to win the championship, and you do what you need to do.

Your big has to be able to make 'em pay from the perimeter.

I think it's really important that we get an experienced staff. Guys that have been a head coach, to me, at some level is important to me. I value head coaching just because it's good to know what it's like to be the decision maker.

My goal early in becoming a head coach so young was to find out if I could do it. I just wanted to see if I could be a good head coach and then start learning from head coaching.

I love jazz and blues, where there's a structure, but a lot of the cool stuff is veering off the page and playing.

The Energy job was probably the key. It kind of transitioned me back into the States. It gave me a link to the NBA. And I got to make some contacts and meet some players and get players set up and learn the NBA game and terminology and coaching those type of players. It was certainly a huge, huge key to getting to the NBA.

I've coached a lot of teams and moved up gradually and tried to succeed and tried to have success at every level. When that happens, you just continue to wonder if you can keep doing it one more level.

I just want to keep getting better. People used to ask me - when I was winning in the D-League - why I wasn't in the NBA, and I'd tell them, 'I just want to learn and get better.' I figured it'd happen one day, and if it didn't, I really enjoyed my time coaching anyways.

I call Kawhi the best team player in the league. He really does everything: he defends. He scores. He has been grabbing huge rebounds. He is a leader. His competitive spirit to win rubs off on everybody.

That's playoff basketball. Can you not get too happy after a win? Can you understand how determined the team is going to be after a loss and bring the energy you need to bring?

Iowa is always home for me.

I still say, to this day, I could not guard Nigel Lloyd.

It's about what the players are doing. My job is facilitate that. My job is to put them in positions to succeed. My job is to listen to their ideas, take them if they're good, quietly push them to the side if they're not. My job is to help them grow.

When I came back to England after my stint with Derby in 1995, I really wanted more time to study coaching.

I think I jumped the gun a bit on head coaching. I got named a head coach at 23, and I really didn't know what I was doing. I remember getting that job and going, 'Oh my God, they gave me the job.'

I've had a lot of really good preparation. I've coached a lot of games around the world.

I didn't think reaching the NBA was a possibility when I coached Derby in 1990. I was right out of college when I went there and was more concerned about playing a bit and getting that out of my system.

I've got way more attention than I ever needed or wanted.

It's not like I'm shy or anything. I'm not.

You've got to coach with what you have and who's available.

I started at Grand View and all the England stuff. I just wanted to learn and get better, and that's kind of what the experiences were.

I was in love with the triangle because it was so different to what everybody was doing in the NBA. Everybody else was dribbling down, throwing it into the low post, and then their guy would go to work. To me, it was boring.

I tried to convince those guys at the Bullets in the '95-'96 season that they could try to beat the mighty London Towers, who won everything the year before. I got out of bed every day with the mindset of getting the team to Wembley for the play-off final and to win the championship.

I like to play aggressive, in general.

I said it when I got hired. I said, for five years, I had a 1,000 people telling me I was going to be a head coach in the NBA. And when I got the job, those same 1,000 people were shocked.

Predictability can eventually be defended.

One of the things I like to do is let the players play and the coaches coach.

Try to put our guys in different positions, try some different combinations, et cetera, to prepare us for the playoffs, which is what matters.

Most of the places I came from, you gotta do a lot of gunslinging or coaching by the seat of your pants.

When I started coaching, I wanted to find out quickly if I could do it.

I worked at chemistry and developing a style of play on both sides of the ball and studied success and winning.

I would want to start. I want to run out there in front of 20,000 people and get my name announced. I get it. I get that.

I read a couple books on democratic coaching.

The gym in Milton Keynes or wooden backboards at Chester - maybe it didn't feel that glamorous at the time, but it was fun.

They do not eat Yorkshire pudding on Sunday in Iowa.

As an assistant, when you wake up in the morning, you're opening your laptop and watching film. Then the game starts, and you're watching it until you finally fall asleep.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20. Any time you go back, and you look at something, and now you've got the result of something, you say, 'Yeah, maybe it wasn't the right idea.'