Class of 2017 | psacardinals

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I read Pat Riley’s book "Show Time" and he talks about 'the disease of more'. A team wins it one year and the next year every player wants more minutes, more money, more shots. And it kills them...But it’s hard not to be selfish. The art of winning is complicated by statistics, which for us becomes money. Well, you gotta fight that, find a way around it. And I think we have. If we win this, we’ll be the first team in history to win it without a single player averaging 20 points. First team. Ever. We got 12 guys who are totally committed to winning. Every night we find a different person to win it for us.

"The secret of basketball is that it's not about basketball"

“Look at our team statistically. We’re one of the worst teams in the league. So now you have to find a new formula to judge basketball. There were a lot of times I had my doubts about this approach, because all of you kept telling me it could never be done this way. Statistically, it made me look horrible. But I kept looking at the won-loss record and how we kept “improving and I kept saying to myself, Isiah, you’re doin’ the right thing, so be stubborn, and one day people will find a different way to judge a player. They won’t just pick up the newspaper and say, oh, this guy was 9 for 12 with 8 rebounds so he was the best player in the game. Lots of times, on our team, you can’t tell who the best player in the game was ’Cause everybody did something good. That’s what makes us so good. The other team has to worry about stopping eight or nine people instead of two or three. It’s the only way to win. The only way to win. That’s the way the game was invented. But there’s more to that. You also got to create an environment that won’t accept losing.”

Isiah Thomas speaking on the secret of winning in "The Book of Basketball" by Bill Simmons

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the class of

2017

I used to be jealous of Aaron Afflalo
I used to be jealous of Aaron Afflalo
He was the one to follow
He was the only leader foreseeing brighter tomorrows
He would live in the gym
We was living in sorrow
Total envy of him
He made a dream become a reality
Actually making it possible to swim
His way out of Compton with further more to accomplish
Graduate with honors, a sponsor of basketball scholars
It's 2004 and I'm watching him score 30
Remember vividly how them victory points had hurt me
Cause every basket was a reaction or a reminder
That we was just moving backwards
The bungalow where you find us
The art of us ditching classes heading nowhere fast
Stick my head inside the study hall, he focused on math
Determination ambition, plus dedication and wisdom
Qualities he was given was the sh- we didn't have
Dug inside of his book bag

and Coach Palmer asked for his finals
He had his back like a spinal meanwhile
We singing the same old song spinning the vinyl
11 graders gone wrong
He focused on the NBA we focused on some Patron
Now watch that black boy fly

Black boy fly
Watch that black boy fly
Black boy fly
Watch that black boy fly
Black boy fly
Watch that black boy fly
Black boy...

"Black Boy Fly"

Kendrick Lamar

(2012)