I know that once I get a good rhythm and a good feel, no one can stop me.
It was a lot of fun playing against one of the best players to ever play this game in Michael Jordan. For me it was a dream to play against him night in and night out in the NBA with the New York Knicks.
As a young man, you get to a point in your life where you feel like you have grown up and have to make decisions and not having that father figure in your life to guide you to making those decisions.
To me coming up short as a team and for me not having a great particular game was tough to swallow, but your life doesn't end there. You must put your life into perspective and keep moving on.
I think when you saw this year's playoffs, Miami and Detroit have a pretty fierce rivalry now. Also, the Suns and San Antonio look like they're starting to develop something there. I look forward to seeing those rivalries continue and develop.
Me and Spike Lee are good friends. I got a lot of respect for Spike just because of who he is, what he stands for, and the support for that organization. Even when it was bad he was there.
There were mistakes that I made that I did learn from. When you don't have responsibilities, the only responsibility is for yourself, but when you have someone there to mentor you, then you don't make stupid mistakes.
Not having a father helping you grow into manhood and teaching you those things about how to be a man hurts. It hurt my brothers because their fathers weren't involved in their lives.
As a player you can have a bad game and come back for the next game. As a coach you really can't do that. You have to dissect games night in and night out and figure what you did wrong.
Playing with John Stockton and Karl Malone was great. It was obviously a thrill to play with.Those two were committed to winning and were a stable of their organization for so long. You can't say enough about how they approached the game night in and night out.
That's a dream of mine, to be able to coach at the NBA level.
There were butterflies, otherwise, you're not really ready to play. The locker room, I remember, was quiet and we were very focused on playing that game.
Michael Jordan makes you bring your game to another level. That's why I loved competing against him.
[Being a coach] is totally different, but I have a new level of respect for coaching that I didn't as a player. So much is expected of you and from your team. Everything falls on your shoulders.
Michael Jordan was a great individual and a great player. You can't say enough about what he brought to the game. He took the NBA to another level.
Pit Riley had a lasting effect on us as players and the coaching staff.
At that time we didn't have much movement within our team. [ Pit Riley] pushed us as much as he could from a mental stand point. He knew it was time to leave and for us as players we knew it was time to part ways.
We hated to see Coach Riley go. Coach Riley is a very smart individual and he knows his coaching style. He also knows how long to stay with it and move on. He is a very demanding individual. When you coach at that level like that it tends to whirl the players.
It was a good opportunity for me to wear a NBA jersey. The Golden State Warriors gave me an opportunity to come in and play for them. I was very appreciative of that.
I enjoyed my time in Utah. It was a different area to what I was used to. The people there were very nice and it was a great organization and city. I have only good things to say about Utah.
Coach [Pat] Riley's record speaks for itself. What makes him so special is he is a coach clearly concerned about winning. His whole thinking when he wakes up every day is how can I make this team [ New York Knicks] more focused and going through 82 games during the regular season and the playoffs.
You look at the assistant coaches under [Pat Riley] that played and they have become prosperous within this game. It triples all the way down from the assistant players to the coaches. Patrick Ewing went into coaching as well as myself.
He was a great individual. People that don't know Patrick [Ewing] and only see what they read in the paper don't know this is a man of great integrity, love for his teammates, and love for this organization.
New York is a different breed than any other city there is. Media can be very hard on you at times, but [Patrick Ewing] did handle it like a man. He was able to prosper in that whole atmosphere.
It was tough [to move to the Golden State Warriors] because of my success level in New York. To leave this city and go out west and move my family was tough, but this is part of the business. Something as a player that might happen to you.
