Rashard Lewis Quotes

"Things are lot different now. He's more of a disciplined, in-your-face type coach. It's something we needed. I feel like we were a little too relaxed around here."

"The first team to start playing defense was going to win the ball game. I thought both teams did a bad job of playing defense. We had to start making some stops."

"It's an honor to get the invitation, but I don't want to go through a training camp and get cut. I think that would really hurt my feelings."

"We got to get that hunger back. Last year is over with. It's a whole new ballgame. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We're not labeled as that sorry team anymore. We might be now, but we were a good team last year and we weren't when we started this year."

"Sometimes I think about what it would be like if I played college ball. This time of year is special for basketball. All I think about is close games, buzzer-beaters and games that you remember."

"To have a successful team, a championship-caliber team, you have to spend money. You can't keep young guys. We've been a young team ever since I've been on the Sonics. ... And hopefully if they do sell the team, then we'll have an owner that's going to be able to do that for us."

"Pretty much from the beginning of the season until now, guys were unhappy. They wanted to get traded, they didn't want to be in this situation and they wanted to be out of here. I thought it was more of a domino effect for the whole team; that's why we're having the type of season we're having."

"I don't believe that anybody quit, I really don't; it was just that we had tired legs and maybe couldn't do some of the things that we wanted to. We've been going at it pretty hard with no let-up. ... At some point, that's going to take its toll."

"It feels good because we're getting the confidence that we can win close games."

"We talked about it at halftime and said the first team to play defense was going to win this game."

"I'm not going to say this is getting old because we've still got a lot of games to play. If you start giving up, then it's going to be a long season and we're going to continue to get our (butts) kicked."

"You can't let the other four starters hurt you. Those guys are good players, too. It's not just about stopping Kobe, but it helps. But they have other dangerous guys on their team."

"We said at halftime that the first one to play defense was going to win the ballgame. We gave up a lot of points in the first half and we felt like we had to step it up on the defensive end."

"He just threw up. About four guys ate some bad chicken last night, Nick [Collison] went home to be with his girl who's having a baby and the other guys got traded. I'm the only one here."

"He just respects the game of basketball."

"It seemed like they weren't playing hard and [were] just kind of going through the motions."

"He just wants to win games and he knows they've had an up-and-down season. They're above.500 now, and I think he's trying to keep it that way. His main focus is getting that team to the playoffs, and he's just trying to win games."

"To be successful, you've got to have a guy like Chris, not only to win more games, but to get to the next level."

"It'll be different for people watching the game and for us a little bit. After Monday's game everything will go back to normal."

"Usually guys are counting the days down or planning out their vacation. With this team, if feels like we have 20 or 30 games left. We are playing like we are playing for something and that's the sign of a good basketball team. We're strictly business and the chemistry is coming along. It seems like we're headed in the right direction."