If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on?
Some people can get there in three or four games, some need eight or nine, but after 11 games, if you've been playing regularly, you're match-fit.
If you want to be a top player you have to play well for the whole season and then ten more seasons, not just three or four games.
We all know it's hard to have time to come in as a young player - maybe the club and the supporters give you seven, eight, nine games where you're rusty and not performing. It's difficult to do that.
Four Games is incredible. Especially as an nine-year-old watching Athens 2004. To think as a kid then I would not just go to one Games but four.
I'm an avid bridge player. I usually go to the local bridge club three or four times a week. I've always been a game-player, and I think bridge is one of the greatest games ever invented. It's too bad that not many young people play it any more.
You can be a top, top player for 10, 20 years, then you become a coach, lose two or three games and you're out.
Not only do you have 16 regular-season games, you also have four preseason games. Then if you make the playoffs, you can have four more games before you get to the Super Bowl. So you can already have 24 games without the 18-game season. And 24 games takes a real toll on somebody's body.
If you want to say I was a disaster of a player, then say it. But give me another disaster of a player who played almost 500 games across 14 years.
It's the play-offs, the end of the season, the big games, if that doesn't excite you as a team or a player then you shouldn't be playing.
Of course, the best thing, if you play in the Premier League, you can always develop further as a player, and you are playing against the best players. You are also playing game after game all the time, two or three games a week.
When you stand and talk about player safety, and then, at the same time, you want to extend the season two more games, there's a contradiction in there.
Miloslav Mecir - best anticipation of any player in our generation for sure. The most flexible... and then crazy good hands. He is the best player in the world to not have won a slam, for sure. No question in my mind. He should have won three or four.
... You get surreal numbers by playing games. I used to feel guilty in Cambridge that I spent all day playing games, while I was supposed to be doing mathematics. Then, when I discovered surreal numbers, I realized that playing games IS math.
Every player goes through streaks where they're just not making their shots. It may last two games, it may last ten games, and a lot of times, it's something off the court that is bothering you, or coach might cut your minutes for some unknown reason.
Every single day I wake up and commit myself to becoming a better player. Some days it happens, and some days it doesn't. Sure, there are games I'm going to dominate and there are going to be games when I struggle. But it doesn't mean I give up.
Playing 82 games is a haul, and with eight or nine exhibition games, it's a long process. You've got to take care of your body and make sure you're getting your work in and staying healthy throughout the whole season.