Rafer Alston
Rafer Alston
Rafer Jamel Alstonis an American retired professional basketball player. He played for six NBA teams throughout his career...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth24 July 1976
CityNew York City, NY
basketball consistent deal group guys hard injuries period playing starting
We had more consistent injuries than we had consistent basketball plays. We could never get that consistent feel of a starting lineup, playing with a set group of guys for a long period of time. That's hard to deal with.
breathe early guy hard rhythm touch
He got into a rhythm early and it's hard to get him out of it. When you do want to play defense, you can't touch or breathe on a guy like that.
best hard notch player supposed teams turn
You're supposed to get better. When other teams turn it up a notch or two levels, we turn it down a notch or two. Teams make it hard for us to get it to our best player (Yao Ming). We don't make it hard to get it to some of their best players.
agendas contract hard personal stay team whether
You're a professional, you have pride, and you have a contract to go out and play hard. But we do have things to play for, whether personal agendas or team goals. You have to play hard and stay hungry.
basketball great guy hard jolly leave loves matter playing regret time unlike
Regret? ... I just regret getting into situations. Because it's unlike me. I'm a guy who just loves to leave it on the floor, have a jolly old time playing basketball ... that's the great thing that everyone understands about me I'm going to play hard no matter what.
guy hard hurts late playing
That hurts not only him as a player, it hurts us as a team. And it hurts me to see another guy go down, especially him with how well he's been playing and how hard he's worked. To see him go down late in the year, that hurts a lot.
envision hit night
You always envision a night like that, where you come out and hit on all cylinders.
collapse
I thought he was going to collapse out there.
effect instead start uphill
You just got to start with a win. That way the snowball effect can start going uphill instead of downhill.
bulk call came count full guys minutes nature playing season whatever whenever
You can call it disappointing or frustrating, whatever you call it, but no one understands the nature of not having your guys, especially the guys you count on to play the bulk of the minutes and take the bulk of the shots. Whenever one came back, the other went out. We never had a full season playing with the nucleus we envisioned.
dominating good shots
We were able to get good shots. When you have two dominating All-Stars out there (Yao and McGrady), those shots will fall.
arenas game last loud rocking
That's the way it is in some arenas. Some are as loud as can be. They're rocking and rolling. You have your Arco Arena, then you have your Atlanta. That's the way some arenas are. As players, we have to go out and play the game and do the things we need to do. That should be the last thing on our minds, if we have 18,000 or 8,000.
games guys help job learn win
We will have to learn to play without him. But we've got guys who can get the job done. We've got a lot of firepower that can help us win games without Tracy.
prepare prepared sports
We just weren't prepared to go into the battle, and I think that's one thing about, not just sports, but life. You have to prepare yourself and we just weren't prepared.