Richard Jefferson
Richard Jefferson
Richard Allen Jeffersonis an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. He was a member of the United States men's national basketball team at the 2003 Tournament of the Americas and the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and won the NBA championship as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth21 June 1980
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Everybody's surprised. There's guys, not naming anybody, that won't sniff the playoffs, that are 15 games under .500, that are playing in the game. But it is an All-Star Game. It's an individual performance game. Very rarely do team players get rewarded. He's probably the best team player in the game.
You don't prove yourself until the playoffs. Detroit and Miami are the two best teams in the conference, and until someone knocks them off, they're still the two best teams in the conference.
I think they've come down to Earth a little bit after a fast start, but they're still, I would say, the best team in the NBA. But we're a confident group here. I don't think there's a situation that we go into and don't believe we can win.
He's extremely healthy. He's the best player in the history of this franchise. Everything that we've accomplished starts with him. We need him to be the dominant point guard that he always has been over his career in order for us to succeed.
I do care about getting that All-Star respect. I would love to be an All-Star. I am playing with the best point guard. So a lot of times, playing with him, sometimes it is the quarterback or the receiver that is the All-Star. Hopefully at some point in my career I will be able to prove that I am one of the better small forwards in the league.
It would have made things a lot easier on Vince (Carter).
Right now, the team is struggling, I've struggled. And I think it's a direct correlation.
Realistically, I haven't played well since I came back. Nobody plays perfect in this league but I haven't played a good game since I got back. Tonight it was turnovers and missed free throws. I need to figure this out if I'm going to help our team.
Our expectations are high. But we're just like a lot of teams at this time of the year. We're going to try to win 16 games.
Opinions, right or wrong, aren't going to help or hurt the situation. They are what they are. (NBA commissioner) David Stern will do something and you have to live with it.
We had plenty of good looks, especially close around the bucket. We missed some easy shots.
Bosh posts up, but he likes to shoot jumpers, and we were able to take that away from him. You need to crowd and use your quickness on him.
Everybody was to blame. You have a chance to win on the road, and the last 10 possessions, you don't get many stops. That's what it comes down to. Forget everything that happened the first 40 minutes of the game. The last 10, 15 possessions, that really determines how this game adds up.
You got to want it more than them. When the ball got loose, I thought I might have gotten fouled but I am not going to look around, I am not going to complain. I am going to grab that ball and keep going until they call it. We had more of that tonight.