The only way to shut people up is just by winning and just playing basketball.
I know you can't please everybody; you can't make everybody happy, but just getting that perception that I don't care about basketball and what it brings is a lie.
When I'm smiling and having fun, that's when you should have a problem. If I'm out there frowning and looking mean, that's when you know you've beat me - because I'm not having fun. I've been playing basketball since I was three. Everybody since I was three tried to tell me to stop smiling. Even my dad. My dad apologized to me when I was ten.
That's my job, to motivate people. I can do more, show people more things. That's really why I play basketball. That's my whole purpose of playing basketball.
Growing up, I played about every sport imaginable except soccer and hockey. I've always had a passion for basketball. I remember actually playing basketball when I was two or three years old. The time I knew that I could really take my game to the next level.
I hated that perception that I didn't work hard, that I really don't love basketball.
Basketball has brought me a lot of joy, brought me a lot of good things. Just that side of it has really affected me.
You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won.
