You can't really get into regular football after you watch Australian rules football because it's just two different ends of the totem pole.
In Australian culture, people are just more laid back, people aren't as serious, they just take their time with things. It's just like, whatever, if I don't get it done I don't get it done.
Winning the Rookie of the Year would be nice but making the playoffs would be even nicer for me.
I just want to try to ignore the scrutiny and all the distractions and just play hard basketball and let the best come... Improving game by game and trying to improve my game is what I want to do.
We have a high ceiling. We're still young. We're still learning coach's system and we're still learning how to play hard every night. I think that's been a bad habit of ours the last few years. It's a habit that's hard to shake, too. I think if we keep pushing, we'll be alright this season.
I'm not into jewelry. I've got some earrings but they're not too expensive. There are guys who drop a hundred grand for a chain. The public's got it right - a lot of NBA stars are arrogant and like to spend lots of money and have lots of girlfriends and all that.
These days, to be seven years in one spot in any pro sport is a pretty long tenure.
What I would say is I've only had one injury in my NBA career, that was probably was because my core wasn't strong enough, when I had a stress fracture in my back.
Concentrate on defense because the offense will come.
I was struggling at Rookie Camp to be quite honest with you. Basically, it was a week of being locked down like in jail for me. I would say about 50 percent of it was useful. The most challenging part of it was off the court. I mean, man we were just sitting there at times. We had meetings from about 10 a.m. in the morning to about 10 at night and you can't get a workout in at all.
The American attitude is 'We're the best'. That's why the NBA guys who come from other countries, the Europeans, all sort of stick together away from the game.
Going home to Australia, it's good to get home, but it's kind of bad too because you get used to that way of life again and you have to come back to America.
I think Chris Paul is a great player. He is very unselfish and plays very hard, so he would be a guy if he plays. I think his hand is still questionable, though. I hear they are talking about resting him that weekend. I'm excited to play with all the guys. Marvin Williams is starting to play well, and Salim Stoudamire, I think he should be there.
I don't think you ever want to be too settled, because once you become settled, you lose a lot of your drive. I mean, I am settled off the court; the business side of things, the papers, contracts and all of that, but there are a lot things that I need to work on, on the court, like my free-throw shooting, which has been terrible. I need to work on being more demanding in the post. My teammates are going to come to me and I just need to go out there and score in the post, which will open up things for our guards.
The thing with NBA teams, a lot of times they just want to get you back on the floor to play, so as a player you've got to be very, very smart.
