Set higher standards for your own performance than anyone else around you, and your only competition will be with yourself
Rick PitinoRead
When you coach Russ Smith, you have a nervous breakdown on every possession. He's not from a different country. He's from a different planet.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the intense and unpredictable nature of coaching a talented, yet challenging player.
In this quote, Rick Pitino humorously describes the intense pressure and constant stress that comes with coaching Russ Smith. He emphasizes that Smith's unique playing style makes every moment on the court a source of anxiety for the coach, likening his talent to that of someone not just from another country, but from another planet, illustrating how extraordinary and unpredictable he is as a player.
In practice
In a sports commentary about the challenges of coaching.
Set higher standards for your own performance than anyone else around you, and your only competition will be with yourself
Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they're better than us.
I'm only superstitious on the tennis court.
I was playing rugby and the other games English school children do, and there was an event in which races were run, and I won these by a considerable margin.
There's nothing, today, that excites me, or that makes me think I would like to be back in AFL circles. I have no interest. No interest whatsoever. My love for the game died inside of me in those final years of me playing.
I think, as a rookie, what guys need to be judged on most coming in the league is feel. Not skill, not shooting, not stats, not even passing, but that feel for the game, the ability to read situations and make the right play.
They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.
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