When you play against good people, that's when you focus your concentration. Your sense of urgency to be disciplined in your execution all become more critical. Sometimes you get away with doing things not quite right against lesser competition, but when you play against real good people that's when it shows up.
I always found it a great challenge playing against Michael Jordan, to play against Magic Johnson, to play against Larry Bird, to play against all those good players because it's something that you can take away from it.
Once you're on the pitch, you play for your team, and you want to win. During the year, you can play against friends - you can play against big friends and close friends - but once you are on the pitch, this friendship goes away, and you just focus on winning the game.
When you play against top players, sometimes you can play - you can play your utmost and you still get beat.
Every season is so much different and you go through your ups and downs, you figure your team out, you get to play against great teams. Some of the best competition there's been since I've been in the league. Just every night, night in and night out we get to play against the top guys, the top teams. It's a lot of fun.
Sometimes you're going to be shoved into a corner, and even though it's against your principles, against the way that you like to play the game, you're going to have to protect your own players.
A good play is a good play. If you want to chalk up your rejection letters to the fact that you're a woman, that's your choice. But often you get a rejection letter because your play isn't ready. Or the time isn't ready for your play. And that has nothing to do with gender.
The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.
A good coach will evaluate your performance against your potential. A coach helps you measure your performance against your strengths instead of against someone else's. A coach will know what you are capable of and will push you to your limit.
Once you get on to the racetrack on Sunday and you strap your helmet on and you come down especially toward the end of the race, it's every man for himself. It's me against the world. It's me against everybody else. Sometimes you're against your critics, as well, too.
Most people play games alone, against the machine. But if you're playing against a real person, it's going to be that much more fun.
Whenever you play with better competition or play against better players, it raises your level of play on both ends of the court.
What you end up doing is you try to match your guy's strength against a place they can be successful. They're doing the same thing against us. Sometimes they have the edge, sometimes you have the edge.
The best antidote against evils of all kinds, against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words and prayers and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will less and less be troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.
If you were against slavery in 1840 and a white person, you would have been against the law, the Bible, your church, your pastor, your parents, common sense, tradition, everything. You would have been against everything.
When you play a team sport all your life, you need to get out there sometimes and show some individualism in a sport where you play against the nature.
You always want to play good against your ex-team.