Antawn Jamison
Antawn Jamison
Antawn Cortez Jamisonis an American retired professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, when he was named national player of the year in 1998. He was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the first round with the fourth overall pick of the 1998 NBA draft before being traded to the Golden State Warriors for former Tar Heel teammate Vince Carter. Jamison was named to the...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth12 June 1976
CityShreveport, LA
We feel like we're going to win. That's what things were like last year with this team. If it was a close game, there was no doubt in our minds that we'd find a way to pull it out.
If we had lost this kind of game about a month or two ago, this room would have been awful. This is not the same team where a loss like this would have lasted four or five games. But we're feeling a lot better about ourselves than we have in a long time.
I think this road trip is, for me, more personal. The last time we came out West, I kind of went into a slump. So I just didn't want that to happen again. The stakes are a little bit higher this time. I just want to make sure that I keep up my end of the bargain and make sure the team plays well.
Our Achilles has been the beginning of the third quarter and the last five minutes of the game. But we did a good job of keeping our composure today. We stayed focused and stayed positive.
I think it's a slap in the face for people to say that we're not going to be a good playoff team because Larry's gone. We didn't make the playoffs last season because of one player.
We are almost where we were at this point last year. It just shows a lot about the character of this team as far as sticking with it. We believe that this is a pretty good team. The way that we are playing defensively and offensively, you can see that we have something special here. I think it's just a matter of time before we get even better.
We aren't going to sneak up on anybody this year. Last year, maybe there was a sense that yeah, they are the same old Wizards. Now that we had some success, got to the playoffs, people are going to be up for us. We have to be ready for that challenge every single night.
He told me he didn't really enjoy last year because he thought it was going to be something that occurred every year. This opened his eyes a little bit. He wants to go enjoy it and have fun.
It's been this way for the last week and a half. We didn't want it to come down to the last game, but this is fun.
You don't want to come across a scenario going into the end of March or beginning of April when you have to win eight out of 10. This is a great opportunity for us to create some distance and climb up in the standings now. You don't want to continue to be around .500, one or two games above, one or two games below, and then in the last month or so you really have to turn it on.
I've been around a while and it's been frustrating lately. It's been tough to get up and enjoy the season. Normally, that's how you feel as an organization that doesn't have any chance of making the playoffs and we've kind of seen those signs. I'm not saying that we felt that way but losing those last three, man it took a lot out of this team.
It just shows you that after all the turmoil we've been through, we are starting to pick it up, and we're almost to the point where we were last year. It just shows a lot about the character of this team. We didn't get to the point where we are giving up or the people upstairs are trying to disassemble this team. We believe that this is a pretty good team.
The frustrating part is we're right there. We're in every game going down to the last two or three minutes. we've just got to do a better job as far as showing some poise and some leadership to make sure guys are all of one accord. Of late, it just hasn't been there. It's fun basketball to be in a game that comes down to the last three or four minutes, but it's not fun when you're not winning. We just have to find a way to close them out.
We would get down, find a way to get close or take the lead, and they'd come on a nice big run. Those are the things you have to stop on the road. Every time it seemed that we got over the hump, they did a good job of staying poised and running their offense.