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.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I'm a big believer in communication.”

“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.”

“I hope I continue to learn. If I don't, then I know everything.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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