"Looking back on those games, I probably hustled out of position as much as I hustled into position since I really never had any real training. I was working on instincts alone"
About this Quote
The subtext is about the cost of improvising your way through a system you were never taught. “No real training” isn’t just a personal detail; it’s a critique of the environments that romanticize raw talent and grit while neglecting instruction, mentorship, and the boring architecture of fundamentals. Evans frames instinct as both gift and trap: it gets you moving, but it doesn’t tell you where to be. In that tension, the quote becomes less about athletic confession and more about how people perform competence when they haven’t been given the tools to build it.
Looking back is doing the heavy lifting here. The retrospective tone signals a shift from identity (“I’m a hustler”) to understanding (“I didn’t know what I didn’t know”). It’s a quietly modern kind of accountability: not self-flagellation, but a clear-eyed audit of how effort without structure can become noise, even when it’s loud and sincere.
Quote Details
| Topic | Training & Practice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Evans, Jim. (2026, January 17). Looking back on those games, I probably hustled out of position as much as I hustled into position since I really never had any real training. I was working on instincts alone. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/looking-back-on-those-games-i-probably-hustled-76159/
Chicago Style
Evans, Jim. "Looking back on those games, I probably hustled out of position as much as I hustled into position since I really never had any real training. I was working on instincts alone." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/looking-back-on-those-games-i-probably-hustled-76159/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Looking back on those games, I probably hustled out of position as much as I hustled into position since I really never had any real training. I was working on instincts alone." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/looking-back-on-those-games-i-probably-hustled-76159/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.



