Arron Afflalo
Arron Afflalo
Arron Agustin Afflalois an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for UCLA. As a junior, he was named a consensus NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans and was voted the player of the year in the Pac-12 Conference. After electing to forgo his senior year in college, Afflalo was selected in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons with the 27th overall pick...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth15 October 1985
CityLos Angeles, CA
We just needed to execute. We were getting good shots. We were just missing them. What changed was on the defensive end.
I wanted to congratulate him on a good year, but I didn't want to do anything dramatic, like hug him for an hour.
We know how tough it is in Oregon and we know both of them are very good teams. We don't expect a cakewalk at all. Neither one will be easy.
He does all the little things -- taking charges and defending guys. He's very good and he improved throughout the year. You can just see it in his confidence and swagger on the floor. He knows what makes him a good player.
I saw him laying there in tears. I felt for him a little bit. He has no reason to cry. He should definitely keep his head up. That's easy to say when you won the game and your opponent lost. But I just really wanted to see him still in a good mood.
We'll be very good next year. This team knows what it takes to get to this point. We should be right back here, hopefully.
We don't see ourselves as the favorite. The teams that made it to the Final Four are all good teams, just like us.
This is a good opportunity to see how I can compete against NBA players. If I'm able to do so, that will assist my decision, but otherwise, I will be coming back to a great situation. We have a great team and I would love to be a part of it. I had a lot of fun this year.
I knew I couldn't relax for a second against him. I couldn't let him get open for a 3 or drive for a dunk, because I knew that would ignite their whole team.
It was great to start out like that. When you get the crowd behind you and you start like that, it tears the other team's heart out.
I knew all along this team could be at the top and remain at the top, because we definitely have the personnel. If we put our mind to it, play 'D' and do all the right things, play for each other, we shouldn't lose.
It was longer than four or five minutes, that's for sure. It seemed more like four or five hours. But it was well worth it. It's one of the primary reasons we're still playing right now.
It was kind of frustrating watching him bring his team back into it. He was doing a lot of moving and he had three guys screening for him. He was running free wherever he likes.
We just played with a lot of energy at the end. Obviously, it was desperation time. We were very fortunate tonight.