I think school is very important and I personally had a great experience at North Carolina, which helped shape me as a basketball player and a person. Every once in a while, you will have a player who can make the jump and have an immediate impact on the professional level, but most of the players who come out would absolutely benefit from going to college.
I want people to understand, gambling is not a bad thing if you do it within the framework of what it's meant to be, which is fun and entertaining.
I'd take 12 guys who had a strong passion for the game over 12 guys who don't respect the game.
I'm not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.
I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish.
I've never been afraid to fail.
If I thought of the number of people who were watching me as I got ready to shoot, I?d miss it.
When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it's time for me to move away from the game.
I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else's talent.
Each time I step on the basketball court, I never know what will happen. I live for the moment. I play for the moment.
When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.
There will be a player greater than me.
I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.
Live the moment for the moment.
In any investment, you expect to have fun and make money.
I want to play for years.
I am privileged to have played basketball.
Even though, physically, I can't do it, the mind says, 'Yeah, I can still do it,' and I still think I can do it better than most in the NBA, … Driven From Within.
I have failed many times, but I have never gone into a game expecting myself to fail.
It's a habit of mine now, noticing labels, logos, shoes.
I just feel that at this particular time in my career, I've reached the pinnacle of my career, I've achieved a lot in that short amount of time, if you want to call it short, but I just feel that I don't have anything else to myself to prove.
I wasn't really a work conscious type of person.
I will not quit this game because of what the media has done to me.
I basically expect anything. Isn't that wild? I used to surprise myself a lot: certain moves, how I'd get out of trouble. But at some point, you accept the talent that you have, you accept your creativity.
I never thought a role model should be negative.
