Magic Exit Interviews: Jameer Nelson Quotes
Jameer Nelson:
On being fully healthy in the playoffs:
“It means a lot. Any time you can recover from any type of surgery, because all surgeries are serious, it’s tough to get yourself back involved in terms of your heath and your mental focus, everything is just tough. I thought coach (Van Gundy) and Otis and the training staff, they stood by me when I first came back, and maybe it was a little early, but they gave me an opportunity to come back and be myself, and work myself back into the rotation and get myself in shape.”
On regular season accomplishments:
“We had the second-best record in the league, but that doesn’t matter because we didn’t accomplish our goal, but it was still a good thing that we did. Everybody on my team, everybody in the organization, is upset, but that’s a thing you look back on in a few months and we’ll realize that we did some good things.”
On pending free agents on the team:
“We have a great group of guys, on and off the court. I think we have a championship team. Our guys really believed and we really tried, it just didn’t fall our way. I can’t make the decision on who comes back and who doesn’t but I just think we have a championship caliber team.”
On lessons learned from this season:
“We know it’s tough. I think we did a great job all year of handling adversity. Look at the beginning part of our season, we could have easily been one of the worst teams in the league with the guys we had out in terms of suspension and injuries. Myself, Vince, Rashard, other guys stepped up and did their job and that shows the type of team that we have and that’s why I said we have a championship-caliber team.”
On changes next season to locker room approach:
“It’s kind of hard to see what’s going on right now. It’s too early. I haven’t really looked back on that right now. It just hurts right now because we aren’t playing and we know we should be.”
On what is the bigger disappointment; this year or last year:
“I don’t know, I can’t really judge it, especially because I know my team and we don’t want to lose, we still want to be playing, but we are not, so we have to go back to the drawing board.”
On his current plans:
“I’m going to take some time off to spend with my family, with my wife and kids; just relax. I’m going to let my body recover from the season and just mentally get myself ready to start working out again.”
On plans for down time:
“Nothing. I hang with my family and the people I’m close with. There’s not a lot of time during the season when I get to do that.”
On wanting to see this team stick together and get another shot at a championship:
“I’m not the guys who makes the decisions in terms of who stays and who goes. But like I said, I think we have a championship -caliber team and that this team is committed to winning a championship. I would definitely like for everyone to stay together just because of the bond we have on and off the court.”
“It means a lot. Any time you can recover from any type of surgery, because all surgeries are serious, it’s tough to get yourself back involved in terms of your heath and your mental focus, everything is just tough. I thought coach (Van Gundy) and Otis and the training staff, they stood by me when I first came back, and maybe it was a little early, but they gave me an opportunity to come back and be myself, and work myself back into the rotation and get myself in shape.”
On regular season accomplishments:
“We had the second-best record in the league, but that doesn’t matter because we didn’t accomplish our goal, but it was still a good thing that we did. Everybody on my team, everybody in the organization, is upset, but that’s a thing you look back on in a few months and we’ll realize that we did some good things.”
On pending free agents on the team:
“We have a great group of guys, on and off the court. I think we have a championship team. Our guys really believed and we really tried, it just didn’t fall our way. I can’t make the decision on who comes back and who doesn’t but I just think we have a championship caliber team.”
On lessons learned from this season:
“We know it’s tough. I think we did a great job all year of handling adversity. Look at the beginning part of our season, we could have easily been one of the worst teams in the league with the guys we had out in terms of suspension and injuries. Myself, Vince, Rashard, other guys stepped up and did their job and that shows the type of team that we have and that’s why I said we have a championship-caliber team.”
On changes next season to locker room approach:
“It’s kind of hard to see what’s going on right now. It’s too early. I haven’t really looked back on that right now. It just hurts right now because we aren’t playing and we know we should be.”
On what is the bigger disappointment; this year or last year:
“I don’t know, I can’t really judge it, especially because I know my team and we don’t want to lose, we still want to be playing, but we are not, so we have to go back to the drawing board.”
On his current plans:
“I’m going to take some time off to spend with my family, with my wife and kids; just relax. I’m going to let my body recover from the season and just mentally get myself ready to start working out again.”
On plans for down time:
“Nothing. I hang with my family and the people I’m close with. There’s not a lot of time during the season when I get to do that.”
On wanting to see this team stick together and get another shot at a championship:
“I’m not the guys who makes the decisions in terms of who stays and who goes. But like I said, I think we have a championship -caliber team and that this team is committed to winning a championship. I would definitely like for everyone to stay together just because of the bond we have on and off the court.”
