![]() “The guys that I’m closer with, I tend to talk to them less on the court. “Young guys will check in for the first time and I’m next to them, so I take it as a chance to welcome them to the league or congratulate them or whatever it is,” he added. Griffin said he also uses time at the free-throw line to show appreciation to the NBA’s brotherhood. “It’s pretty standard talk, at least for me.” “They say, ‘You like it here?'” Griffin said. Lately, others have been asking Griffin about his time with the Pistons. The stoppage in play is the window Griffin uses to see how a guy’s family is doing, how his health is, or to jointly bag on the officiating. Others take the brief moments at the free-throw line to catch up with opponents with whom they may not be close but who have earned their respect. It takes that split second for me to hit you and get that positioning.” “There’s not much talking with me because their main focus is to keep me off the glass. “More times than not, though, with me … I’ll say, ‘Hey, I’m not talking to you.’ But if it’s someone I’m cool with, or one of the elite guys say something to me, I’ll talk. “I wouldn’t say you get close to guys, but you get a couple of words in, joke around, say something funny,” Andre Drummond said. Yet there’s always time for words to be exchanged. The visits to the NBA’s free-throw line are much shorter. You can liken it to baseball, when a batter reaches base and spends, potentially, minutes there next to an opponent, one with whom he may have a relationship, or with whom he can at least share words. On the court, however, the free-throw line acts as a reunion for a players, an exercise in trash talk or a recalibration of expectations. Very often when we face adversity we have responded.Tim Duncan used to give Blake Griffin a good-natured hard time at the free-throw line when Griffin was starting out with the Clippers. We have to be more prepared than in the last match," Dalic said. "This is an extremely important and difficult match for us. While Canada have little to lose after their surprise qualification for the World Cup, the Croatians are under far more pressure. We are playing Croatia at the World Cup, against people like Luka Modric. "We've been waiting 36 years to get here. "It's a defining moment for Canada in the World Cup. The controversy over the ebullient Herdman's comment has raised the stakes. Responding to Herdman earlier this week, Croatia's 24 Sata tabloid ran a full-page photo of a naked man below Herdman's superimposed head, with maple leaf flags over his mouth and private parts and a headline that translated as "You have the mouth, but do you have the balls as well?" "We have proven that by the way we have played and our conduct during the World Cup. "The Croatian team deserves respect from everyone," he said. We have to get after it, get on the front foot."īut Croatia, who were held to a lacklustre 0-0 draw against Morocco in their opener, have not taken kindly to the 47-year-old Englishman's comments.ĭalic said Croatia deserve more respect from Herdman as a result of their achievements.Ĭanada manager John Herdman Patrick T. "I don't even think this group are listening to that stuff. "They have been buying into that mentality from day one. "The statement I made was to remind these boys that there is another task ahead," he said. Herdman insisted on Saturday that his rant was simply intended to get his players to focus on Croatia instead of dwelling on their spirited defeat against fancied Belgium. The Canada coach used offensive language to urge his players not to be overawed by the Croatians, featuring stars such as Real Madrid's Luka Modric.Ĭroatia have been angered by Herdman's provocative declaration of intent after Canada's first match at a World Cup for 36 years. "I told them they belong here," Herdman said during a TV interview when asked what he told his players in a post-match huddle following their opening 1-0 defeat to Belgium. ![]() Dalic's men face Canada at the Khalifa International Stadium in their second Group F match on Sunday, with both teams fighting to keep alive their hopes of reaching the knockout phase.
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