I was going to say he's going to be a great player. But I think he's pretty close to that already. He's going to be a superstar in this league. There's no doubt about that.
Great players make great plays. Kobe hit some big shots.
I don't know what our record is going against him. I know in Jersey my second and third years, we had a good team. But that doesn't matter. He's still a great coach.
He made all the big shots at the end. That's what great players do.
I said he would be a great player. I think he might be that already. Nights like this prove he is going to be a superstar in this league.
I think it's going to be wild and crazy. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a great atmosphere.
The thing I always harped about is that he didn't play hard enough. The one thing I told him this summer is that he can be a great power forward because of his skills. But he wasn't giving himself a chance because of not playing hard.
I wanted to be in a different situation. I think I'm in a great situation right now. I've got a young team, a bunch of young guys that are hungry and that want to play, so I just leave it that way.
Deke came in the second quarter and did a heck of a job. He was doing a great job of blocking shots, taking up space and that?s what we needed.
He's just a great little player. He's got a lot of heart. We knew the triple double would come sooner than later, but obviously tonight we really needed it. I thought he really came through big time.
We want to establish some type of a home-court advantage. We've got a great crowd, so we've got to bring an energy and a physicality to the game that we haven't been bringing, and all our guys know that right now.
It's been a fun first half. It's been tough at times. You go through growing pains (being) so young. For the most part, I've had a great time teaching these guys and trying to make them understand how this game, in my mind, should be played, and they're doing a great job.