A Quote by Goran Dragic
When I came to the league, back in Europe I was so much faster than the other guys, I was always penetrating. I didn't use my jump shot. When I came to the league it was tough to get to the basket. All those guys, they went under the pick-and-roll. It was long threes, especially for me coming from Europe.
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Well, the league is changing every year. It changed when I came. It changed before me. First of all, we have to be thankful for all those guys in the '60s and '70s. They made this league one of the best sports leagues in the world.
You learn something new from every player. No player is the same, so I'm definitely trying to pick up as much as I can from the guys ahead of me and from the guys who have been in the league for a long time.
I get upset when people score on us, especially when it's an easy basket. Everybody's super talented in this league, but you want to make it tough for guys.
Growing up, I was a typical high school kid when YouTube first came out, and I was just watching a whole lot of videos of guys in the league I'm playing with now, guys that aren't in the league, and guys that came before me, just watching the moves that they do, and going out in my backyard and trying them. I did it almost every single day. And I didn't do any crazy dribbling drills or any two-ball dribbling drills. I'm really not good at two-ball dribbling. Nah, never did that. I just went out and tried the moves that I saw.
My jump shot is the key thing. Guys go on the pick and roll and will force me to knock down shots.
It's always a good time to play against a team when they come back from Europe, whether it's the Europa League or Champions League.
I was always good at penetrating in Europe, but in Europe, you don't have so many shot-blockers as there are in the NBA, so it was easier.
I think some guys have the ability to learn from themselves and get better. Those are the guys that last a long time and continue to improve in this league and in sports in general.
I won the most important league in Europe, I think - not just Europe but the world - the Premier League.
The game has gotten a lot faster. I was anticipating changes as far back as when I first came into the league, when the spacing was changing, and big guys were playing in different spaces on the floor. But when that change actually happens, and it happens so quickly, it's just amazing.
You know, I came in as a rookie and didn't get to play much at all, really. Became a sponge. I had to go through the rough, get cut a couple times, take the G-league route, which was the D-league back then.
It's a league that you really have to get used to. If you're coming from another one, it's a tough league. Getting the experience playing in a Premier League team and getting hopefully consistent games will be huge for me.
A generation of men really built the NFL and gave guys like me a shot, and a lot of these guys are left out in the cold by the league and forgotten.
My dad was in the Korean War. He got shot seven times. He had seven bullet holes in him. And out of his troop of 35 guys, he was one of nine guys that came back. And when he came back from that he had seven kids in seven years.
Now if you ask me about coming from Europe, I would suggest to any young player interested in the NBA to not spend two or three years in Europe searching for money. Just give it a shot. You can always go back.
When I first came into the league, I was in Tennessee and I had guys like Courtland Finnegan, Chris Hope, Michael Griffin - a ton of guys that were willing to pour into me and help me figure out how to be a pro, whether it was the defense, whether it was life off the field.
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