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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 16, 2014Frank VogelNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA East – 163 COACH VOGEL: I keep telling you guys that great offense beats great defense. Everybody knows that, right? (Laughter.) Good job, Kyrie Irving. Very proud of our East All‑Stars for pulling out a come‑from‑behind win, buckling down on the defensive end when they needed to and just putting on just a spectacular performance offensively, and just showing a little bit of will to go out there and do whatever it takes to gets a win. THE MODERATOR: Take questions. Q. When you told your guys get back on defense, match up, I know it's an All‑Star Game, did you say it with half a smile? COACH VOGEL: They all laughed at me. I did say it with half a smile, and they all laughed at me. And I said, okay, I see what you're saying. So if you care about winning, you know, that's what you got to do. It's up to you guys. Q. Do you sense that some of the guys, veterans guys like LeBron and Dwyane Wade are willing to hand this over to the younger guys and let them have more of the spotlight and more of the scoring? COACH VOGEL: Yeah, I think so. Those guys have been here, they're unselfish guys and they want to be here for the fans and make sure they're putting on a good show, but certainly it's part of the history of this league, right? Some of the older guys letting the younger guys grow and have some of these moments. Q. There are a lot of people, including some Conference coaches, when they pick reserves that they want to look at the teams that have .500 records, and if Kyrie were chosen or if he were viewed that way, he might not have made this team, given Cleveland's performance. What does his game tonight say about that approach to All‑Star selections? COACH VOGEL: Well, as a voter, I think you definitely do look at that. That's, again, the history of the league is to reward the teams with winning records and the best players on those teams. But there's certain players that stand out beyond that. And Kyrie is definitely one of them. The Knicks haven't had a great year. Melo is definitely one of them. He's just an All‑Star. No matter what his team is doing, he's one of the best. And that's what Kyrie Irving is, he's one of the best in the world, and he showed it tonight. Q. This really wasn't Joakim Noah's kind of game in the first half, that wide‑open All‑Star Game, but it ended up in his kind of game. Can you just explain your thought process behind going with him in the entire fourth quarter as the game became a real game? COACH VOGEL: Right. Well, I had a plan to get him about seven or eight minutes in the fourth quarter and, if it was close, finish with my guy, Roy Hibbert. The way that group was going, they made a little bit of a run. So a certain unit is making a run, you want to ride them out a little bit. So Joakim played some great minutes there in the first quarter. I could have come back with Roy. Roy would have been a little bit stiff, would have taken him a few minutes. And that group was rolling. So a lot of times you just stay with the group that's going. Q. You've personally been witness to the ascension of Paul George over the last several years. How rewarding is it for you to see him at the place that he is now and how high do you see his upside? COACH VOGEL: It's remarkably rewarding. Because y'all heard that‑‑ hear the phrase all the time: You want to see good things happen to good people. And he's one of the most refreshing young men I've ever been around, and he works extremely hard and he's very talented. He cares about all the right things. So to see him have any success is rewarding, but on this stage at this level, it's pretty special. And you had the two parts to the question. There was a second part to the question? Q. How high do you see his upside? COACH VOGEL: How high do I see his upside? I don't know. He's only a fourth‑year player in the league. So I don't think he's reached his ceiling. I don't think he's reached his potential yet. He continues to grow. If you look at guys like Dwyane and Bosh and LeBron and where they're at in their careers, 10, 11 years into their careers, and all the tricks and all the habits that have become part of them, Paul still is gaining them. He's still growing. So he's a heck of a player right now, one of the best in the world, right now, and I think he's going to keep getting better. THE MODERATOR: That you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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