Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't care how much you traveled in college, and I don't care what kind of shape you're in. Travel is the one thing you're absolutely not prepared for as a rookie.
I think you should look at it as a blessing that other people would think you're valuable enough to be mentioned in a trade. It could be worse. No one could want you.
Nothing really comes easy to you when you're under-recruited, you're undersized, you're undervalued. It's a situation where you have to be better than the bigger guys.
I was 5-6, a little chubby, spot-up 3-point shooter. So I couldn't blame the schools for not recruiting me. But then my junior year, I was 5-11, hit a little growth spurt.
Lowry is a pitbull. He's a gritty player who scores in a variety of ways, but he's also one of the few guards who also does the things that go unnoticed on the stat sheet.
Harden throws his body around a lot and is a master at drawing fouls. It could be considered borderline flopping sometimes, but he's a vet who knows how to get to the line.
Like, if I'm assessing someone's game and they can't shoot, they can't shoot. And they know they can't shoot. It's not like I'm making fun of them. I just keep it real, man.
It's nice to say you have goals and that you want to win championships. But until you get thrown into the fire, you can't truly grasp what it takes to accomplish those goals.
If I could go back in time and give Rookie C.J one piece of wisdom, it would be that sometimes less is more. Off the court, sometimes it's just better to shut up and be quiet.
Growing up I was a Cleveland Browns fan and my mood would change based on how they were playing. If they were losing I wasn't as happy, I wasn't as excited, I was a little sad.
Other fans get antsy when their team's offense struggles to score for a few possessions. Blazers fans give us standing ovations, like they're trying to will their energy into us.
As a competitor, you always want to receive the best rewards. But you understand that it is a team sport, and you understand the better your team plays, the more you are rewarded.
I spend a lot of time in the gym working on moves, working on difficult shots, figuring out ways to create space, becoming a tough-shot taker and a tough shot maker, especially down the stretch.
When you're watching from the bench, you can pick up on everything - where guys like to shoot the ball from, how teams defend the pick-and-roll, which big men are good at hedging the screen and so on.
I'm not just a dumb basketball player who got lucky and graduated from college. My ratio for professor to student was nine-to-one so it wasn't like I wasn't going to class. I was going to class every day.
At the combine we went through medical exams from every team, the most extensive physicals I've ever had: blood tests, MRIs, heart monitors, everything. Because of my injury teams really paid attention to my lower body.
My parents have done a tremendous job, over the course of my career. They try to make every game and I think my rookie year, my mom made every game... They've been really consistent and it's all you can ask for as a kid.
Growing up in the inner city, a lot of kids didn't think reading was cool. I'm trying to show them that it is cool and the importance of growing and learning outside of their everyday lives, which is a lot of times sports.
When I think about defending Kyrie, I think about respect. His shooting percentages were close to 50/40/90 as a 19-year-old rookie. When you come into this league with numbers like that, defenders have to respect your jumper.
When I started playing professionally, it made me realize that I had a voice in the league, one that gave me the chance to share a different side of our day-to-day life and the things that were happening on and off the court.
Life happens fast. You have to have a Plan B, a backup plan and really figure out a way to have different avenues of income and just avenues of happiness. That is what is really important, being at peace and having that happiness.
Life in the NBA can be one big constant distraction, especially when you're on the road. You're always moving from one place to the next, always on the phone, checking texts, social media, all of that stuff. It takes you out of yourself.
I ended up breaking a bone in my foot early in my rookie season, and honestly, it was kind of a blessing. I had so much free time while being laid up that I put a lot of time in on film to understand the game from a different vantage point.
I got hurt my senior year of college. I ended up breaking my fifth metatarsal after I pulled out of the Draft. That was a good experience for me to kind of find myself, figure out a plan for post-basketball because obviously it doesn't last forever.
I have a responsibility and a job as a guy who gets paid a lot of money, I'm expected to perform. And 82 games in 6-7 months is a lot, and it's hard on the body, and you're not gonna play perfect every night. Even Ray Allen misses shots, even LeBron misses dunks.
Being able to go to someone's house and have dinner with them and their family, being able to go see a movie with them, or go shopping, it makes you really care for someone and hope that they succeed. That means a lot in an on-court relationship. It creates trust.
Competitive people, especially in sports, want to learn about everything. So when you're interested in something, you become a bit obsessive. You start to research it and ask questions about it, and before you know it, you have a serious hobby because of how you're programmed.
I think, when you get to know somebody on a personal level were you truly understand what makes them tick, what they play for, things they like to do in their spare time, you're around their families, I think you're kind of able to kind of coexist more when you have a relationship.
In college, the line is so close that you can kind of half-heartedly shoot the ball off-balance and fading away. To shoot an NBA three, because the arc of your shot has to be a little higher, you have to be squared up and get your legs into it more, which can be tough in the fourth quarter.
We don't have those bougie, not-into-it, wouldn't-be-caught-dead-in-the-free-t-shirt hoops fans in Portland. We've got those pinwheel-tattooed, bleeding-red-and-black, still-rocking-that-Walton-jersey, ride-or-die, realer-than-real hoops fans in Portland. The love is real. The support is real.
I ended up switching over to journalism in college. A few weeks into freshman year, I realized that business school wasn't for me. And writing stories and reading and talking to people is something that I just enjoy doing, so I figured why not try to build up a post-basketball career with that.
One of the advantages of going to a small school is that you're expected to be the man. They have to give you the ball, and there's more room for error in a situation where you can play your way through mistakes (and no matter how good you are, this is a valuable coping skill at the NBA level).
I wanted to do a lot of things in wine, but I didn't know how to do it. So before I invested in anything, before I really put my dollars into it, I put my whole heart, soul, mind into it so that I really understand the severity of each outcome, the severity of success and the severity of failure.
People think because there's only 24 hours in a day, we're just supposed to play our sport and then go home and think some more about our sport. They don't think that we should care about other things, but the reality is that you can be really good at what you do for a living and have other hobbies.
There's just so many great artists out there, but I think growing up, J. Cole has been the guy that I've always been listening to, even in college. Going from that struggle to stardom, that rise to stardom, 'Dolla and a Dream,' all that stuff - I've listened to all his classics, all the old J. Cole stuff.
In order for us to have changes in society, we have to do a better job with listening to each other, listening to stories, listening to experiences and sharing things. That's the way you're able to come to a better understanding of people in general. We have to do a better job in society. It starts at the top.
As you get more experience out there, as you get more comfortable with the NBA system, the offense, the schemes, you begin to understand where you're going to get your looks from. And I think a big part of playing well is not having to look over your shoulder and just understanding that you're consistently be counted on.
Sometimes recruiters and scouts are missing on players. Going after the guys who are really hyped, five-star players and guys that are playing in grassroots and are seen all the time. Then there are the players that developed internally. They go to small schools and they continue to work on their games and they blow up later.
It's been a part of my game for life. It's tougher to finish in the lane so you've got to find different areas to score efficiently and the mid-range contested shot is a shot a lot of teams will live with. And it's a shot I'm willing to live with as well just because I've gotten so many shots at it and I'm comfortable with it.
We need to play like somebody took our lunch money, like somebody disrespected your mother. I think that's the type of anger you need have and the aggression you need to have on the court. That doesn't mean making mad faces or mean faces but it means attacking the glass, strongly attacking the rim when you have the ball on offense.