Monty Williams

There was a time when Canadians - and they're just north of the border - but there weren't that many Canadians who had pushed themselves into the level of high-level college players.

I think if we can educate ourselves and educate our kids and educate guys in the NBA, we can remove assumptions. Once you remove those assumptions, I begin to understand someone else's background.

I think facts remove assumptions.

It's so easy to go the route of thinking about all the situations we've seen and they hurt us all deeply, but I think it's also a time to make sure we rally around the good policemen in our society that do their jobs every day, put their lives on the line.

We all just want to see action, we all just want to see change and we all understand that we can play a part in that by being part of the solution in our local communities.

I just hope that we get to a day where we all feel like we feel protected and served by our police force.

Communication is huge and a lot of it is knowing what to say, and it takes time.

In our case, my children and I couldn't have made it through the tough times without the grace of God and the wonderful support we received from family and friends.

I don't question God, I don't question His love for me.

In my house, we have a sign that says, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'

God knocks the ball out of the park and I get to run the bases.

I just don't look at jobs and say, 'Well, I'd rather coach here and not there.'

Doc Rivers kind of told me I'd be a head coach one day. I just kind of looked at him like he was nuts.

A lot of time, we get ourselves in trouble, especially people who have a microphone and start to talk about things we assume.

The one thing that Pop taught me was to be myself.

I'm not going to sit here and complain about a team that is aggressive.

We got to figure out or define what is a legal guarding position because there are times where he can move his hands out of the way, but it's hard to tell a guy what to do when somebody is running into you, you know what I mean? I don't know what a legal guarding position is at times.

I'm not going to get into complaining publicly about fouls. Just not going to do that.

I've learned I would rather be effective over right.

After you've had some life experiences and listened to people about their evaluations of you, especially people that you respect, you have no choice but to change.

I was so focused on winning and coaching; there were times players felt like I was really tough on them and hard on them. Now, I try to be more considerate with how I get my message across.

We talk about touching our guys in a personal way, knowing that we all want to play basketball and coach basketball, but our guys are dealing with stuff and we want to make sure we are sensitive to that.

I have to be real with my kids. Life is precious. They know that. Yet, I have to remind them that they're blessed beyond what most people on the face of the Earth could imagine.

Well, head space, mental stamina, all that stuff, like it boils down to getting it done.

It just comes from my faith as a Christian, to not just do a job, collect a check and go home.

Well sometimes, culture can stifle talent, so you have to be careful.

When I was in Portland, they started pushing me to do more media when they thought I was going to be a head coach.

As soon as you lose one game, you're going to deal with the criticism.

Everyone playing in the NBA likes to have pressure. If you didn't like pressure, you wouldn't be playing.

So many reporters ask a lot of crazy questions. The answers to most of these questions are so obvious, but they ask them anyway just to see what kind of reaction they can get out of you.

Even though I've been diagnosed with a heart condition, I've had no symptoms and have been cleared to play by the National Institute of Health. The health issue was never a factor in contract negotiations.

I thought the playing time I was getting during the season was getting me ready for the playoffs. When it didn't happen and Coach Riley never told me why, I thought, 'Maybe I'm just being used as a pawn in the game.'

Growing up in colonial Virginia, if you know anything about that part of the country, there was a number of tensions there. Because of that, you heard the family members talk about Dr. King and many others who were not just speaking out, but sacrificing a ton so that our world, our country could be a better place.

A lot of young guys nowadays, when you start talking about guys wanting to get paid or what's best for them, they tend to think about themselves.

I have to enhance the strengths but be honest about our weaknesses and get the players to consider a new way of doing some things.

When everything happened to my family, my focus was just take care of my children. That led me to believe I might not ever be able to coach again, and I was cool with that.

There are so many things you can lose sight of as you try to win games and all the stuff we try to do every day.

I would like to be the kind of coach who gets text messages and phone calls from players years after I coach them, because we had something that is bigger than just being on the floor.

Just for me, my leadership revolves around serving people. It's the way I thought would be effective for my personality.

I learned a long time ago, it's my job to help guys in any area, whether it's on the court, off the court.

I get vested in my guys. I want to know who their family members are, I want to know their interests, I want to know what makes them tick. I want them to also know I care about the other side of them, their personal character and growth as men, because I think we all sharpen each other that way.

How can you stay in touch with what's going on if you don't read everything?

I am overjoyed to receive the Michael H. Goldberg Coach of the Year Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association.

To some degree, it seems like around the country people are just living life like there is no virus. And that's scary.

It's a skill to navigate uncertainty.

I don't have any bitterness in my heart, man.

I try to be respectful.

I tend to state the facts.

I work in a business where you just can't say anything you want to say.

You do feel a level of excitement because winning in the NBA is really hard as it relates to one game, but to win a series, you have to enjoy that.