A Quote by Jahlil Okafor
I get that every game. High school. At Duke. When I do the introductions, I get a little butterflies. Once I step on the floor, I'm fine.
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Defense not only wins games; it's what gets you on the floor at every level you play at. Once you get to high school and get to college, if you don't play defense, you won't play.
I have always been confident in my skills and once the game got going I knew I was probably the best player on the floor most of the time whether it was junior high, high school or college. I knew I had control of the game.
The American economy is going to do fine. But it won't do fine every year and every week and every month. I mean, if you don't believe that, forget about buying stocks anyway... It's a positive-sum game, long term. And the only way an investor can get killed is by high fees or by trying to outsmart the market.
At Duke, I wasn't able to score like I did in high school, just because we had so many great players, and I had to accept a role, which I was fine with, but it gave people another look at my game.
Nerves and butterflies are fine - they're a physical sign that you're mentally ready and eager. You have to get the butterflies to fly in formation, that's the trick.
I'm old school. I'm locked into my own little circle. If you cross the line, you're going to get bit. They'll always know where I'm coming from and once we hit the floor, there's no doubt.
Every step, whether at high school or at college or at the NFL, I had to climb and crawl and scratch to get there.
I think if you are a player going to Duke, you have to expect a little bit to be not liked when you go and play in opposing team's gyms. Like, when I signed with Duke out of high school, I knew it would be playing in hell where they hate you. That's what I loved about it.
Duke is in extremely competitive environment. In my high school, I think I got one B my whole four years. I was used to being the smartest kid in every class I was in, and then I went to Duke and suddenly I was the dumbest kid in every class. Everybody there is up to something.
I think that when young players really see their game rise next level, it's when practices are like competition and there's no separation there. Of course, there are adrenaline and the butterflies; you don't have that so much in practice. You want to fake yourself out and try to get them there because you want to be as close to that game mentality as you can when you step on that field every single day whether it's practice or in your backyard or down the street with your dad.
Every game and every minute you get to step on the court is an opportunity to feel more comfortable and get better.
I think I was on this very straightforward escalator - grammar school, high school, college, get a job on Wall Street, kind of everything leads to the next thing. But at what point do you get to step back and say, 'I'd like to take a broader view of my time on this planet?'
My earliest thought, long before I was in high school, was just to go away, get out of my house, get out of my city. I went to Medford High School, but even in grade school and junior high, I fantasized about leaving.
They're coming out of high school exhausted. The pressure in high school is killing these kids. By the time they get to college, they have been fighting for three or four years to get the perfect SAT scores and get into A.P. classes.
Every time you go out there, you want to be a little nervous, have a little bit of butterflies in your stomach and get the juices flowing.
In my formative years, when I was a little kid, I'd get out of elementary school, and because my mother worked as a nurse, I'd have to find a way to get a ride to the high school and watch my dad's team practice.
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