With six wins from the past nine games, the Kings are poised for something akin to a grand final tonight when they take on the Adelaide 36ers at the Kingdome, knowing a win could be a major step towards avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon many pundits expected would be theirs in their return year to the NBL.
Khazzouh said he had often wondered if the side could be revived after an early nightmare run. He and the team have learnt a lot about themselves, however.
Advertisement: Story continues below <iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.smh.sport/sport/basketball;cat=sport;ctype=article;cat1=basketball;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=3.5987555E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> </iframe>
''If anything, it's helped me to grow mentally,'' he said. ''When you're in a team that loses 14 games in a row, you grow much more as a basketballer than if you keep winning. When you're winning, everything's easy. You turn up to practice, and everyone's having fun, everyone's happy with you and the team.''But when you're losing and things are tough, you get to learn much more about what makes a person tick, and I think that's where the character of our team showed through. We all took responsibility, and did our best to come out the other end.''
A lot of that achievement is down to coach Ian Robilliard. ''There were plenty of times when I thought, 'When is this going to end?' '' Khazzouh said. ''It was very frustrating to keep losing. But the coaching staff did a great job of keeping us positive, and that's the reason we turned the corner.''
Part of Robilliard's strategy was to ensure everyone realised they were playing for a club that has never finished last. Khazzouh believes the result is the club can look forward to a better future.
A win tonight would send the Kings into the off-season on a high
0 Response to "Confident Kings won't forget their losing run"
Post a Comment