Thursday, January 8, 2009

The beauty of working hard

Young players would be wise to read this quote from Kevin Garnett:

"My game is not perfect, by any means. But I do work hard on it. We all need to work on every phase of the game.

[While with the T-Wolves] Kevin McHale would grab me and we would go through footwork on the post countless times, and I've been able to acquire some of that knowledge.

Kevin said, 'If you want to get better, then show me.' [Former MIN teammate] Sam [Mitchell] used to say, 'If you want it, then you'll work on it.' They are in the back of my mind and carried me to this point.

Now it's my turn as a vet to try and instill this in some of the younger guys. Whether they want it or not, I'm here to give it to them. At the end of the day, it's whether they want to be better players and get better. If you want to work on things, I'm in here every day. I have a bit of a cold, but I'm in here. My leg is messed up, but I'm in here. So, if those [younger] guys are willing to work hard, I'm here.

Ask anyone who worked with me, I never had a problem staying in the gym countless hours. I was always infatuated with the ability to get better, I always watched Michael [Jordan] and [Hakeem] Olajuwon and guys with what I call go-to moves, moves they are comfortable with and had the confidence to go to that move and hit the move and tell you about the move.

I was always infatuated with how you work on something so well, from footwork to confidence, and how it builds confidence to where you can go out there and display it.

There is nothing like going out there and showing off your art, nothing like going out and showing people what you work on, seeing if your stuff actually works. That's the beauty of working hard, is when you see the results."