“It may seem hard to believe now, but the top universities didn’t invite me to play for them. In fact, none of the big basketball programs offered me a scholarship. Not even Virginia Tech, the college where my dad, Dell Curry, had played before his career in the NBA.”
“We talk constantly about big picture stuff, getting better. We don’t talk about record. We don’t talk about playing seeding. We just talk about where we need to improve. You can’t cheat any of this stuff. You can talk about it but you have to grow organically. One of the great things about our team is that our group has been together for a couple of years, even though our staff is new. This group has been together and they know each other well.”
“I learn every single day from our team. We sort through lineups and combinations. There’s a lot of things. It’s not like all of a sudden you say, ‘Alright. We got it.’ You never have it. Everything is constantly changing.”
“A coachable player is not an excuse maker. He takes responsibility for his actions. He is accountable for his errors. When he makes a mistake, he acknowledges it and moves on. He then does his best not to make the same mistake again. A coachable player knows he needs to take criticism or he never will get any better. One thing all great players seem to have in common is during their careers one or more coaches were critical of them.”
On a loss to the New York Knicks:
“We didn’t respect the game, we didn’t respect our opponent. It was a pathetic performance and I hope that every player is embarrassed. Not because ‘we are supposed to win the game’ but it is about how you play the game.”
Denver Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt, talking about Allen’s impact on the game:
“Tony Allen is a difference maker. It doesn’t show up on the stats sheet but he disrupted several plays. He played around the basket on offense, he knows that people play him a certain way and he used that to his advantage, and then defensively he’s just disruptive. He turned the game for them with his pressure and his intensity.”
How can you not love Tony Allen?
The guy is amazing. He plays with energy, defends and most important, he has a will to win.
Too many players in the game worry about their points. Allen does not. He wants to stop the opposing team from scoring. Allen will dive for 50-50 balls, draw a charge and get a deflection.
Something to know about Allen; he took the Junior College route.
If you want to be more valuable to your team, don’t worry about scoring. Take care of the little things like Tony Allen.
“(I am) a guy who tries to fit in with the culture and do what’s necessary, bring energy and be a great teammate and just be professional about the whole business.”
“It’s easy to play hard and it’s easy to do things when everything’s going great. But how are you going to be when things aren’t going great? You have to drown out the periphery, that maybe this program isn’t going in the right direction and freshmen aren’t playing well and all that kind of stuff. We just said relax, we’ve got a young team. We’re gonna keep fighting, and we’re gonna turn it around. And that’s what those guys have done.”
PLAY THE RIGHT WAY 