Carlos Arroyo
Carlos Arroyo
Carlos Alberto Arroyo Bermúdez is a Puerto Rican professional basketball player who last played for FC Barcelona Lassa of the Liga ACB. Arroyo had previously played in the National Basketball Association with the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, and Boston Celtics. In the 2008–09 season, he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli Basketball Super League, winning the league's championship, and being named the Final's Most Valuable Player. He has also played...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth30 July 1979
CityFajardo, PR
We're not going to win all 82 games straight. Guys get tired, sometimes we lose our focus. We lose games. But right now we're on top of our game, I believe. We need to continue to do that to succeed. We want to win and be able to go into the break right. You feel better.
To value every play is crucial at the end of the game. The fourth quarter we came through with a lot of energy and stayed focused of what we were trying to do as a team.
Me and him were talking a lot about us coming here and him having an opportunity here. And basically what he was telling me was he wants to get the love for basketball back. That means a lot to players who don't get a chance to play.
To practice, knowing you're not going to play, is hard. He took it, he learned and he grew. Now he's got an opportunity and he's taking advantage of it.
We're playing our best basketball right now. We're playing together. That's the main thing.
I think just looking back at this game, we all have to sit down and think about the energy level that we brought out the second half of the game. We're the underdog every game now and we just have to bring that energy out with us every game from the beginning.
I think we stayed hungry. But ... we can't put ourselves in a position to be down 20 (points) to be able to start playing basketball.
My situation couldn't get any worse in Detroit. I was playing what, six minutes? I was just there. I was a little annoyed, you know? But I got through it. Our job is to maintain ourselves ready to play, take advantage whenever called. Hopefully I will get that opportunity here.
I wish it never happened. Not so much for myself - I can handle it on my own - but it involves my family. They're trying to adapt to a new city. Now that I have a daughter, it's way different. That's the sad thing about the whole thing. You leave friends and people you're really close to behind.
I saw an opening and I took it. It was important for us to get a win like this. Every time we win one like this it makes us stronger for the future.
I think the energy we play with at home, we need to bring that on the road. That's what it's all about.
He has a smile almost every day, and just his game speaks for himself. You can tell he's having a great time.
We needed to come together at the end and we did. We helped each other on defense. We were up 20 once, but the most important thing was we came away with the victory.
We got the monkey off our back. It feels great.