About the time you think you are getting to know the moves in this game, someone comes along and does everything but undress you on the basketball floor. Standing there under the basket with your hands cupped - and finding that you dont have the ball in them - is a great little old leveler.
Tom HeinsohnIn every game, there's three teams out there. There's the two basketball teams and the team of officials. If the two teams are evenly matched, it can come down to number of possessions. If one out-of-bounds call goes the wrong way, that can be the difference.
Tom HeinsohnAnybody that shoots a hook shot, whatever hand, I jump up and cheer because it's the easiest shot, it's the best tweener shot.
Tom HeinsohnWhat I know is that if you're going to play half-court, you'd better have the greatest executioners of half-court basketball. If you run, you test the stamina and willpower of the other team. That's what I learned as a player.
Tom HeinsohnI enjoy watching competitive people. You watch 'em come and you watch 'em go, and how they try to be the best. How they handle when they're not. How they handle when they are. How they get along together on the court.
Tom HeinsohnTalk radio around Boston is brutal, and I think that's part of what goes on is that people as they're driving to and from work start listening to these jerks, and I say jerks, because I don't think they know what they're talking about and they're just serving some things up as controversy so they can sell the show to sponsors.
Tom Heinsohn