Backstage With JB Bickerstaff: Summer Wrapup Part II
July 18, 2006

Return to Orlando Summer League Index | Summer Wrapup Part I

The Bobcats wrapped up yet another successful summer league in Orlando last week, posting a 3-2 record against Chicago, Indiana, Miami, New Jersey and the host Magic. It marked the fourth time in the last three years Charlotte has posted the best record or tied for the best record in its summer league. As has become tradition for the Bobcats over the past three summers, they continued to rack up the accolades, with Adam Morrison (24.6 points, 2.0 assists) and Sean May (18.6 points, 5.2 rebounds) both being named to the All-League Team. BobcatsBasketball.com checked in with Coach John-Blair Bickerstaff to get his take on some of the team's other top performers this summer with the exception of May and Morrison and the importance of sharing the best record in the league in the second of this two-part series.

(On Alan Anderson)
He’s doing okay after the injury. His spirits are obviously down, but I think the best thing he could have done was to be with his teammates -- you know around guys who can support him and keep him up. And I think that’s one of the things about this team, we became real close real quick. Alan (Anderson) and Adam (Morrison) and Sean (May) and Kevin Burleson -- all those guys -- are there for each other and picking each other up and always cracking jokes. But we tell Alan he won’t be hurt forever. When he gets his opportunity, which he has always done, whenever he’s gotten his opportunity he has seized it.

(On Anderson elevating his game to a new level)
Yeah, he’s had the ability to do those things. I think it’s just a matter of you getting the opportunity and because of his injuries and because of the guys around him, he wasn’t able to get many minutes and many opportunities. But he’s the type of guy that continues to work on his game, who wants to be really good and he has a chip on his shoulder from going and not being drafted. You know there were some places that had him mentioned in the first round and then he wasn’t drafted at all, so I think he’s had that chip on his shoulder and that’s what kind of pushes him to wanting to show everybody what kind of player he can be and more importantly he wants this team to win. You know he came from Michigan State and that’s what they did, they had a winning culture and he wants to be a part of a winner, and that’s why it says a lot to us when he goes out and does all the little things to help his team win and not just for himself.

(On other impressive guys in the summer league)
Well I think Brett Blizzard has done a good job for us. D’or Fischer, while he was healthy, did some very positive things with his rebounding, blocking shots. Marcus Campbell as well, you know you look up and he has double-doubles in rebounds and Thursday he had five blocked shots. I think we are going to take a serious look at these guys, but I’ve been pleased with everybody when they’ve gotten an opportunity. It’s summer and it’s hard to give everybody minutes because you do have your focal guys that you want to get minutes, but we appreciate as a staff everything that these guys have done because they’ve gotten there ready to compete.

(On Marcus Campbell and D’or Fischer stepping up)
Being a guy who’s close and just needs the right chance it’s all about seizing the moment. You know Curtis Withers is another guy that’s in that position, he gets his opportunity and he seizes the moment. I think if you want to make this league and you’re not one of the so called super stars, you have to be able to perform on call, no matter what it is you do when you are called upon you have to be able to perform. I think our group has done a good job of performing on call and I think that’s one of the reasons why we were successful this summer.

(On Ryan Hollins injury)
I’m extremely disappointed. He was one of the guys that we were hoping to get a lot of the minutes and take a really good look at him, see his improvement, see what he could do and see what he could contribute to our team. That’s why we drafted him, and we were excited about the opportunity to draft him. He was a guy that we focused in on in that second round. We had no idea that he would be there -- we thought he would be gone by then -- but we were looking for him and we were expecting some pretty big things out of him. That’s just how the ball rolls sometimes where you are not able to quench that thirst I guess you can say of wanting to see what a guy can do.

(On the importance of winning or sharing the best record for the third time in four years)
I think it’s very important, especially where we come from as an expansion team. As an expansion team you are going to take some lumps, but what you have to do is you have to create a winning environment. And in that this summer program is huge because you go out and you compete and you try to win basketball games. You don’t take it as it’s just the summer, you bring guys in who are competitive and who want to win every time they step on the floor. If you look at the group of guys who we drafted and that we brought in here, they are winners, they are all guys from winning programs. I think if you tend to lose a lot and if you don’t have a wining environment and a wining attitude, you will get stuck being a loser. So what we try to do is we try to put as much responsibility on each individual to go out and do what they are capable of doing to help us win basketball games. Whether it’s the summer, whether it’s preseason, whether you are at home by yourself, that responsibility of making this team better is always on you. Those are the guys we want and who will except that challenge and go out and do those things and make the Charlotte Bobcats a winner.

(On this year’s summer league experience)
I’ve had a great time -- I think the entire staff will tell you the same thing because these guys have been really good and done everything we asked them to do. They haven’t gotten in trouble, they’ve been on time to meetings, they’ve been on time to practice, when they are in practice they play their hearts out, in games no matter if they played 40 minutes or one minute they gave everything they had. They cheered each other on, they shared in the experience and didn’t take upon it as individuals. And I think that what some teams get caught up with in their summer league stuff is guys that try to make the team, so I’m not going to pass the ball and I’m going to take all the shots, but with this group we’ve been so unselfish and so supportive of one another that as a staff we are grateful and thankful to be around this group.