• As charismatic and energetic as Walker generally is, it is tough to be full of life when your team can't even compete.
  • Walker hasn't forgotten anything. But with endless work and a crucial coaching change, Walker has chipped away at his weaknesses every year since. 
  • "Everybody knows where Kemba's chair is," Williams said. When the Hornets settle in for a film session, there is always a front-row seat for the franchise player. "No one sits in his chair. He sits dead in front of the TV every single day."
  • "The leader has to be in front," Walker said. "I just want to show everybody that I'm locked in. If I'm locked in, they have no choice but to be locked in as well."
  • Hornets players and personnel are accustomed to hearing the phrase, "You're going to play the game you prepare to play."
  • These words are especially likely to be used if they are lagging during a shoot-around or a practice drill.
  • "He doesn't even have to say much anymore," Walker said. "I know when he's kind of getting frustrated with us in practice or whatever so I know when to speak up and try to get my guys going, even myself sometimes. I just know."
  • It took Walker about 50 seconds to explain what is going through his head when he initiates a pick-and-roll.
  • First, he is focused on getting the defender in front of him off-balance and away from his body, so the pick takes him out of the picture.
  • "Then it's either I'm getting by the big," or, if the opposing big man has good position, "that means my teammate" -- usually Dwight Howard or Zeller -- "should be open on the roll," he said.
  • If a weak-side defender steps up and picks up the roll man, then his man should be open. "It's many different reads," he said, and they have to be made in a split-second.
  • "Everybody goes through adversity," he said, adding that he only had two options: Let the losing bring him down or work through it.