Sublime

For one thing, he has overcome the disadvantage of wealth. A great basketball player, almost by definition, is someone who has grown up in a constricted world, not for lack of vision or ambition but for lack of money; his environment has been limited to home, gym, and playground, and it has forced upon him, as a developing basketball player, the di

I have been flattered when people say I always helped my teammates play taller. What I tried to do was to make the adjustments to ensure they all could play their games better.

What I found with the Celtics was a set of other players who were brilliant and accomplished. I needed to know who the different players were, what their tendencies were, their habits, their preferences. I had to learn about their thinking, their temperaments. For me to play my best game, I had to discover theirs.

Wallace wasn’t clear on what he wanted, unless it was to be left alone—except when he didn’t.

One of Brownell’s hard and fast principles was that almost as much could be learned about an author’s abilities through an interview as by reading his manuscript, since “water cannot rise above its source.”

He knew his place, but he became a big part of the culture there, because he made sure things were fair and honest. He was a man of his word and expected the same of others.