J. B. Bickerstaff Quotes

Grinding is a mindset and a willingness and commitment to work at it.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

My dad traveled so much for work that, when he was home, we always wanted to spend as much time with him as we could, so going to practices and doing stuff like that with him took precedence over Saturday morning cartoons. We'd go to practice with my dad just so we could be a part of it.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Some guys, when they play with other elite players, they end up being too unselfish; or guys who are used to having the ball in their hands all the time, now they're not as aggressive or as instinctive because they're thinking too much out there.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

If you look at the teams that mix and match their starting lineup a great deal, that sort of inconsistency frequently leads to inconsistency in performance.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Conflict resolution, all those things, are important. When you're in a group environment, you have to have those. If you don't, things fester. Have the conversation. Resolve it. Move forward.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

I'm always for constructive conversation, meaningful conversation, not just words, but conversation.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

I watch a ton of movies. Going way back, I like 'The Godfather.' 'The Matrix' was one of my favorites - the first one; they got a little carried away after the first one. Those are two that stand out.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Through the regular season, if you get really good at what you do, teams will have a hard time adjusting to you.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

During the regular season, you don't have the sort of time you do in the playoffs to prepare for people, so you've got to go to your strengths.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Let's face it, first-time assistant coaches normally don't walk into jobs with two perennial All-Stars on a team that just got bounced in the Western finals. Normally, they get a job in the middle of a year, playing for lottery balls.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Any good defensive team has a strong anchor, because he cleans up mistakes.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

A lot of times, people think of selfish, and they think of offense, but you can be selfish on the defensive end of the floor, too. If you don't uphold your end of our schemes and your responsibilities within those schemes, then you're being just as selfish.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

My dad always took over teams, except for Washington, that were rebuilding, and you hear the taunting, the jokes, negative, awful things about the person you love. That hardens you at a young age.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

You can have old guys who aren't willing to be coached just like you can have young guys who aren't willing to be coached.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

As an assistant coach, the wins and losses don't tally up on your record, so you don't necessarily have that to fall back on, so you have to find smaller games within the bigger picture to play in order to get your victories.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Every day, you learn something. That's the same as assistant coach and the same as a head coach. You should continue to learn. You watch so much basketball, you should see something somewhere from somebody different all the time.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

It's always fun when you get to go somewhere new and you get to meet new people and get new experiences.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

We're all smart enough to figure out Xs and Os - it's basketball, it's not advanced calculus. But the most important thing is can you get your message across to players? Do they believe in you, and do they want to compete for you?

- J. B. Bickerstaff

You go with what you got. That's the thing about having a system, then you plug guys into your system.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

As a coach, the more experience you have, the more you're around players, it helps so you see how guys learn, ways that are effective to reach different people. You see the aftermath of all the things that happened; you don't just see what happens at the game, you see what happens after the game, the followthrough, and those types of things.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Nothing is ever perfect in the NBA.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

It's hard to argue with a coach who says, 'I just want you to work.' What can you say to that without making a fool of yourself?

- J. B. Bickerstaff

I'm a big believer in communication.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

No matter what your job is, you know that you need to have a routine, that you need to be disciplined, you need to work.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

My brother and I used to laugh and say, 'Normal kids went to day care, and we went to the gym.'

- J. B. Bickerstaff

When you want to win, and you want to go to work every day, you want to work with high character people; you want to work with classy people.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Whenever someone great passes, all of us have a loss.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

Small ball, spacing, shooting 3s, is something that everybody's trying to do.

- J. B. Bickerstaff

It's not the way you want to get a job, to see someone you admire and look up to and learned so much from get fired.

- J. B. Bickerstaff