Antawn Jamison Quotes (71 Quotes)

He always brings his 'A' game against us. He plays well every night, but he has had some spectacular games against the Wizards.

Some of the problems we had early last year were on the road. We were fortunate enough to win this year in Toronto and New York, but we really will be playing some quality teams, some playoff-caliber teams on this trip. It's definitely an important stretch for us. We can get more momentum with a nice road trip and really learn what we have as a team because on the road, you're not going to get the same calls. It's going to always be difficult with the crowd. They are going to go on runs. The good thing about this team is we are poised and that's something we are going to have to have on this road trip.

We feel like we're going to win. That's what things were like last year with this team. If it was a close game, there was no doubt in our minds that we'd find a way to pull it out.

It is very disappointing. Tonight was a great opportunity to win. Unfortunately it didn't happen that way. We got a big game against Milwaukee on Wednesday. They're chasing us for that fifth spot, so it will be like a playoff game. Everybody needs to step up their game, and hopefully we can do something there.

It seemed like every time I look up it was 'in and out. The only thing you can do about that is brush it off. I kind of hung my head down a little bit. I don't like my teammates to see me like that, but it's not going to affect the way I come in to next week and how I approach the end of the season.

I don't care what he calls himself as long as we continue to win and he does his job. His job is to first come in and make my job and the rest of these guys' job easy. The guy is unbelievable and the scary thing is the sky's the limit. He's just scratching the surface and he's just learning how to play the game.

It's hard to figure out how we could come out and play the way we did against Utah, and then we came out and played as bad as we did here. I mean, we haven't been beaten like that maybe two times this season. For it to be happening now, we've got to ask ourselves some questions.

I think everybody is stepping up their play because they know the importance of these next 20 games. Let's be honest. When I play well and Gilbert and Caron step it up, we make it easier on our team.

Our Achilles has been the beginning of the third quarter and the last five minutes of the game. But we did a good job of keeping our composure today. We stayed focused and stayed positive.

It just shows you that after all the turmoil we've been through, we are starting to pick it up, and we're almost to the point where we were last year. It just shows a lot about the character of this team. We didn't get to the point where we are giving up or the people upstairs are trying to disassemble this team. We believe that this is a pretty good team.

Those are teams that are looking like playoff-caliber teams, so for us, it's going to be a good test. We'll have the opportunity to distance ourselves or put ourselves in a hole. They're going to have the same mind frame facing us.

We know what Juan is capable of doing when he starts to feel it. We know he is going to be in the mind frame to show people why we should have kept him.

When you've got Gilbert, Caron and myself knocking down jumpers and then you have to worry about Daniels, it opens things up. He's really flourishing in an important stretch for this team. It's good to see him getting back to doing things he's been doing his whole career.

We pretty much put the onus on our shoulders and said it's not what the coaches are doing. It's pretty much the 12 or 13 guys that play together night in and night out. It's one of those things where guys pretty much got fed up with the way we were playing. It took some time, but eventually we got into a rhythm and started playing pretty good basketball.

It's a wonderful feeling to have the opportunity make that team. It's something not a lot of players have the opportunity to do.

I've never felt like this before. I've never felt this comfortable shooting them. Coach Eddie Jordan has been comfortable letting me shoot them, and he's been giving me the green light.

Oh yeah, ... Playoffs for sure. We could definitely make a lot of noise. We could make a run to win it all.

It's still early in the season. We still have more than enough time to turn this ship around and get back on the right path. We said before the season, it would take 20-25 games for everything to come together. I hope it doesn't take that long, but we're getting closer to that number. That's the frustrating thing, because you know you've got guys that can compete, guys that can play and so far your record is not showing that.

Rebounding. The only thing we need to improve on from the first three games is rebounding. If we box out and rebound, we'd be blowing people out instead of having to win these close games.

I'd be all for it. I know that's up to management, not us. But we might have to bring him back. We definitely need him right now. I know it's something that would have to be handled in-house. And Kwame would have to come back and demonstrate to them that he'll do what is necessary. But I'd love to entertain the idea. I might suggest it myself. He has the size and strength and toughness we need right now.

Guys just got tired of not playing up to our standards and not finding ways to win basketball games.

We've been hovering pretty much around .500 all season. There's no excuse for us that when these five games are over we shouldn't be two or three games above .500. Having said that, I think we all know the importance of this five-game stretch before we hit the road before the break is over with. It's a great opportunity for us.

We would get down, find a way to get close or take the lead, and they'd come on a nice big run. Those are the things you have to stop on the road. Every time it seemed that we got over the hump, they did a good job of staying poised and running their offense.

For him to get snubbed is an injustice. It's not logical. I don't understand it whatsoever.

Offensively, it wasn't there. We cheated the plays. We cheated our cuts. We weren't aggressive. We were lazy with the ball.

I don't know what his points-per-game average against us is, but it's really up there.

You don't want to come across a scenario going into the end of March or beginning of April when you have to win eight out of 10. This is a great opportunity for us to create some distance and climb up in the standings now. You don't want to continue to be around .500, one or two games above, one or two games below, and then in the last month or so you really have to turn it on.

All of the great ones have gone through it. You can't let a guy pick you apart and not be aggressive with him. Tonight we came right at (James). We tried to be more aggressive and tried to get the ball out of his hands. We didn't let him get into that comfort zone that he was in the first game.

The game shouldn't have come down to it. We played bad in the fourth quarter, but I thought we held on and did a great job of finding a way to win, but they did a greater job.

It's hard, but everybody goes through it with the exception of Detroit, who hasn't had any injuries. You've just got to find a way to win with the situation. It's been hard because of late we had played well together. We finally got some great chemistry.

He told me he didn't really enjoy last year because he thought it was going to be something that occurred every year. This opened his eyes a little bit. He wants to go enjoy it and have fun.

Gilbert, Caron and myself have got it going offensively. We know that night in and night out that we can do it offensively, it's just that on the defensive end we have to really give the effort 100 percent and really make it tough on our opponents. Once we do that, we really put ourselves in position to win games.

Offensively, I don't know what we were doing. They did a good job of staying poised. We thought we had a comfortable lead and kept it going back and forth, back and forth. But that is no excuse.

I took it to heart. Because, in all honesty, if I was playing well, it would be a different story.

It is not like this is the first time this has happened. We did a phenomenal job in the first half and in the third quarter we came out flat. We have to do a better job.

Sometimes you do have a lot of minutes, but it's crunch time. We know when we're out there we give our team a chance to win, but we have to be smart about it. We know we have 19 or 20 games left and have to play smart.

Everybody knows Gilbert. We don't understand how it's possible (for him to be omitted). But it happened.

We know what our crowd is going to do. It's going to be fun.

It's going to be a challenge for all of us. When we played them the last time, Elton pretty much kicked our behinds. That can't happen again. We need for everyone to pick it up.

Defensively, we've got to make it tough on them. They're one of the best scoring teams in the league and they're playing well. We need the same type of intensity and atmosphere we had when we played against Detroit.

I can recall my rookie year when I was like a deer in the headlights, so I know it's hard for him. But I think it's a matter of time before he starts scratching the surface of how good he can really be.

If we had lost this kind of game about a month or two ago, this room would have been awful. This is not the same team where a loss like this would have lasted four or five games. But we're feeling a lot better about ourselves than we have in a long time.

It's what we should have done a long time ago. It's what we expect.

He'd rather go bowling on a Friday night than go out to the club and party with his boys.

It's hard to say after a loss, but we made some good strides on the defensive end. We had a couple of breakdowns, but as a whole you can find some positives in our play.

The only times that kids can really identify with athletes is going to see us play in the arena. I wanted them to see another side of me. I wanted them to know about Antawn Jamison the person and just not the basketball player.

I know a lot of people will say we're in the entertainment industry, but we represent franchises that are sometimes among the biggest businesses in that city. I'm fine with a jacket and shirt with a collar and pants that aren't jeans. We're professionals and we should be putting forth a professional image. I don't see what the problem is.

I've been around a while and it's been frustrating lately. It's been tough to get up and enjoy the season. Normally, that's how you feel as an organization that doesn't have any chance of making the playoffs and we've kind of seen those signs. I'm not saying that we felt that way but losing those last three, man it took a lot out of this team.

You've just got to find a way to win with the situation. Dealing with the injuries has been hard because it's late, we're playing well together and we finally have some good chemistry down.

How can you be focused enough, determined enough to beat teams that went to the NBA Finals and we can't do it against teams that are struggling ... We just have to be focused and determined to do the things we did Friday night in a win over Detroit. It's unexplainable how we can't find a way to get it done sometimes.