Jeff Van Gundy

“Chicken parm is hard to beat.”

“I never lost the desire to coach.”

“I have known Marbury since he was in seventh grade, and I have always felt he is a hell of an NBA player.”

“To me, it doesn't matter who's out there: NBA basketball is great - if teams are putting out their best players and they're competing to win.”

“People talk about Kobe's 81-point game, the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. I saw the game. I don't care if it was 79, 81 - I just remember the game. I remember the moves. I remember the shots. I remember the beauty of it. The numbers? What he shot from the field? I don't care.”

“I frankly think the NBA All-Star game has run its course, the whole dunk contest... The game - if those guys actually played hard in that game, it'd be the best watch ever.”

“There have been people who said I was a Pat Riley clone. But I don't think that's true. While I did learn a lot from him, I could never be him. I mean, we even dress so differently.”

“When you get a draft pick right, you should be given full credit.”

“In one era, it's hard enough to compare people. But comparing people of different eras... that's next to impossible.”

“D'Antoni can be successful playing slow or fast because he is a bright guy who has very creative ideas.”

“I always said 'strength in stars.'”

“Every team has leadership. The leadership is the best players. But there's positive leadership, and there's negative leadership.”

“To be successful in anything, you have to have a passion for it, and that leads to being enthusiastic and demanding. I didn't have it for history. So I wouldn't have been a good teacher in that area. But I had it for basketball. And that's what coaching is at every level: it's about teaching.”

“Manu Ginobili - I like to watch him. I would pay to watch him play the game. He will try things that will drive a coach crazy, like a full-court bounce pass, but he has such a flair for the game. I love his energy and his spirit and his unpredictability.”

“It's hard enough to coach in this league when you're doing what you believe in. But when you have to try to coach something you may not be sold on, it becomes even more of a challenge. It's really hard.”

“You start comparing people, and ultimately, somebody feels diminished.”

“Sometimes you try to change, and you go backwards.”

“Only once did someone talking about my appearance bother me.”

“If you coach, and coach every day, you should be getting better if you're self-evaluating and you've got people around you telling you the truth.”

“You can't hold up in a FIBA game if you don't have great competitive spirit.”