Patrick Patterson: Kentucky will win a title before the Rockets
By Paul Jordan
Here is the text of the Patrick Patterson inteview from Dime Magazine where PPatt said Kentucky would win a title before the Rockets will. As we can see, Patterson picked the Cats just as a matter of …. timing. Yea, that’s it. We know that Patterson has now been reassigned o the D-League for Houston, but its good to see Patterson get some press and we know it’s just a mater of time before he is back with the Rockets.
"Dime: What are the Rockets and you personally hoping to accomplish this season?Patrick Patterson: Overall as a team, we want a championship. You know, we feel that we have the right tools; we have the right coach, we have the right players, great leadership and hands down one of the best big men in the League. Yao’s coming back, he didn’t play last year, but he’s going to ease into it. He’s going to start playing and picking things up as each day goes by. So overall our number one goal is to win a championship. And for myself, it’s to just be the best player I can be. You know, hopefully make it to the rookie game and help my team out to get us to the playoffs. Just do whatever I can to help this team out and represent Houston, the fans and the organization the right way.Dime: Are you starting to feel more adjusted to NBA life now that you’ve got a summer under your belt? What’s it feel like to now be a pro?PP: It’s tough. You know it’s definitely a business, but the number one thing that I’m trying to adjust to is all the free time. We have so much time outside of practice, outside of lifting; you get the rest of the day to yourself. Rather than college, it was all about a schedule. You practice, you had weights, you had class, you had study hall and you didn’t get done at eight o’clock at night. Rather with the NBA now, if we practice at 11, we’re out there by two-thirty, three o’clock. You have the rest of the day to do what you want. So you can go back, get up extra shots, extra treatment; so that’s the biggest thing I’m trying to adjust to is being everywhere on time and doing stuff on my own. ‘Cause in college, we had people making sure we were there. And in the NBA, they tell you that it’s “your own choice” if you wanna go or not. So just adjusting to the free life, all the spare time I have and just adjusting to the new city, the new fans and my new teammates.Dime: Speaking of college, you’ve got to be keeping tabs on Kentucky. How are they going to be this season now that they’ve reloaded with new guys?PP: Hopefully, they’re looking at furthering what we went last year (35-3, Elite Eight appearance). I know that they have the right pieces with the freshmen.Dime: That’s a high bar to set though.PP: I mean, I feel like they can make it further than what we did. I feel like they can make it to the Final Four. And if everything goes the right way, you know they can win a championship. Hopefully Enes [Kanter] will get cleared, and if he does, you know the sky’s the limit for that team. Because hands down, they have one of the best coaches in college basketball (John Calipari) and one of the best recruiting classes. And they have great leadership, great returnees who played there previous years and who will step up and be leaders this year. So overall, the sky’s the limit for that team.Dime: So who wins a championship first: Rockets or Wildcats?PP: (Pauses) Well, I gotta say Wildcats. Because, I think, their championship is in April and then ours isn’t until like, what, June – something like that. So Wildcats win it first just because of the time period."
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