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Bogut - I wouldn't be the defender I am without Bogut. He taught me a ton. Angles. How to guard the post. You name it, he taught me a ton.
My uncle, my dad always made sure I had guard skills. But as far as defending everybody, that wasn't really my mindset until my rookie year.
I don't really mind any scrutiny. It doesn't bother me. I'm going to still live my life and do everything I do the same way and not lose any sleep.
Just because it's a break doesn't mean it has to be fast all the time. It can be a secondary break, but you've got to allow the defense to break down.
Every time you make a jump, whether it's from high school to college or college to the NBA, you're going to hear questions about your athletic ability.
When I came out in the draft, people kept asking me, 'So are you a small forward or a power forward?' and I was like, 'I'm a basketball player.' Period.
You couldn't play if you weren't tough. You'd get bullied. Everybody who comes through the Civitan Recreation Center has to be tough. It's what we breed.
Al Gore won the popular vote and didn't get elected president, so I'm not going to sit here and kill myself over not winning Defensive Player of the Year.
People will always try to change you. They will always want you to be who they want you to be. That's fine because I'll always be exactly who I want to be.
I grew up in a household where my mom made $16,000 a year. I know the struggle. I know how to keep those things in perspective, and I do keep it into perspective.
Wherever you go in Michigan, you find that toughness. I don't know if it's the weather or the hard times. It's like, if I can make it out of here, I had to be super tough.
You see the guys sign the big contract, you see everybody on TV, but you don't see all the work that goes into that. It's a grind. And a lot of people don't see that grind.
I always loved playing basketball. That was never a problem for me. You want to go to the park or the gym, I'll play with you all day, but working out, I didn't love. I hated it.
I've gotten to the point where I'm comfortable guarding any position on the floor. It just didn't happen overnight. It came with a lot of work, a lot of film study and everything.
A person who can go out and get 40 is going to get a lot more respect than somebody who goes out and holds somebody to two points. It's just the nature of the game. It doesn't bother me.
I know when I need to be pushing it full speed; I know when I got to probe and allow the flow to open up, because, at the end of the day, on the basketball court, something's going to open up.
I will not feel like I've made it until the day I retire from basketball because there's something that I can always get better at, and there's always somebody better, and that's what drives me.
The goal is to win a championship. Every team enters the season with the goal to win the championship, but realistically, there are five or six teams with a realistic shot at winning a championship.
A guy that's going to do all of the dirty work, that guy that is willing to defend anyone and do the little things and not really care about all of that other stuff. I think every championship team needs that.
In the NBA, there's always a guy who is only around because he can jump. He doesn't have a clue about the fundamentals. I learn more from the WNBA. They know how to dribble, how to pivot, how to use the shot fake.
You don't contest shots without expending energy. You don't get deflections - unless you walk into one every now and then - without expending energy. These are the things in basketball you have to really want to do.
Whether that's racism, whether it's bigotry, whether it's gender inequality - whatever it is, it's all stemming from "me against you." And, like, how do you stop it? I just want to do my little part in helping try to stop it.
I have friends in prison. I send them money. I send them food. They say, 'Bro, get me out of here.' There's nothing I can do. They're five years in on a 20-year sentence. They went in at 16, they'll get out at 36. That's a lifetime.
I watch basketball all day every day. So when I'm watching the games, I watch it - I just enjoy watching basketball - but when I'm watching other people play, I'm really just watching as a student trying to figure different things out.
My mom. Growing up with her, she always taught us to say whatever. Like, 'You think something, say it. Don't bite your tongue for people.' I think there's a fine line with that, but at the same time, I'm a firm believer in speaking your mind.
Think about the deflections. The offense can't score every play. They're just trying to get a good shot. If I can deflect a pass, even if it doesn't cause a turnover, it will throw their timing off half-a-second. That half-a-second might mess up their shot.
One thing I've always been taught at the defensive end is you hit first. In life, you throw the first punch; you don't get punched first. It's the same on defense: You've got to hit first. Do your work early. That's what I was always taught. If you don't do your work early, you're done.
I have the mindset of a mid-level guy or a minimum guy. My path here wasn't expected: my path wasn't that I was going to the NBA and making $16 million a year. So I identify more with those guys, and I want to be a voice for them. I want to help them elevate their status in the league. That's my goal.
You're not born knowing how to do math. You're taught that. You're not born knowing how to hate someone. You're taught that. And so I feel I want to use my platform to raise awareness about it. To help raise something positive. In America, you look around and a lot of things that happen - it all stems from that.
I think when you look around this league, so much is scripted. And not scripted in a sense that the league is scripted, but when guys talk, it's like, 'Say this. Yeah, come out and say that.' Like, nah, I'm not doing that. I'm going to say what's on my mind. I'm going to say what's on my heart. It's just genuine speaking.
There's the Draymond Green you see out on the floor. But that's not me. I mean, it is, but there's more. People see the fiery guy, the competitive guy, the trash talk and everything. But they don't see the love and compassion. They don't see the person. They don't see the real me, who values his friends and puts people first.
So many times, I watch games and think, 'Man, why is that guy trying to score like that? He can't do it.' But he's been told his whole life, 'You have to go get 40 if you want to be one of the top dogs.' It's my goal to build a lane where you can be a top dog, and you don't gotta go get that 40. You can go get four and still be a top dog.
It's kinda ridiculous what you can't say nowadays. You really can't say anything you believe! I think it's fricking ridiculous how sensitive everyone is to everything, how much things are frowned upon. How much stuff will cost you nowadays. I think it's fricking ridiculous that we can't - there's certain topics that you can't really say how you feel about.