Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player.
People in the NBA are just as athletic as you. That's the game. You have to have the change of pace. You have to change speeds to get around people.
Sometimes I think it's easier to play someone who's very, very different from yourself. Besides, I wouldn't want to play people who are just like me; that would get awfully boring very fast!
It is fair to say that insofar as sport is taken seriously by those who play it, then to that extent their conduct in play - their ability to deal with loss or victory, their ability to meld strategic thinking and brute force - can be taken as a small-scale model of how they, or others like them, might behave in life.
I think each person you play has a little bit of you in it - you can't really help that.
But one thing you need to do in the game, is to adapt and adjust your game to what you have been asked to do and also to what your body is telling you to do.
The difference of great players is at a certain point in a match they raise their level of play and maintain it. Lesser players play great for a set, but then less.
You try on purpose to get players with different qualities which will rub off on one another.
What gets me upset about with the newer players is their lack of intensity. They tend to go through the motions a little bit. They don't understand that you've got to practice the way you play.
I played with a lot of great players before. They're all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well.