Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Who's to say because you're just a basketball player, or you are a basketball player, who's to say you can't chime in on other subjects or other important topics?
David Ortiz is almost like a superhero. The type of love that he gives and everything, the positivity that's around him - a lot of people admire him and respect him.
I just think Trump's character and some of his values makes him unfit to lead. For someone like him to be president and in charge of our troops? It's scary, to be honest.
A lot of people didn't know why I went to Cal. The Bay Area, Silicon Valley, I wanted to put myself in that position where I'm not only successful on the court but off the court.
A lot of players get to a certain point they don't want to make mistakes. They just want everyone to see how great they are. That ends up being their downfall. You put a cap on yourself.
Athletes aren't allowed to have an opinion. It's tough. Athletes are evolving right in front of our eyes. You see athletes who are politicians, etc., and still, we're told to shut up and dribble.
When I got to Cal, they tried to put me in safe classes, things I could succeed at. I went to Cal for an education. That's definitely problematic. You see athletes taking majors that don't add up to anything.
I'm not saying that players should go out and say random things, especially if they don't know anything about it. But I think players do know more than people give them credit for. People do research, and people are entitled to their own opinions.
I'm not really worried about anybody or anything. I think I have a lot to offer. It's just, with your rookie year, your body, it's just a lot. It may seem foolish, all those dunks and stuff: they look cool, but it takes a toll on your body, for sure.
I'm just trying to establish myself, play the game the right way with my teammates, have fun, make the right plays, and get adjusted to the pro game. It's different from college. It's a little bit faster, so I'm just trying to get as comfortable as I can on the court.
I disagree that an athlete can't be intelligent. Some people think that, in basketball, we have a bunch of masculine adults who don't know how to control themselves. They're feeble-minded and can't engage or articulate ideas. That's a narrative they keep trying to paint.
When I open my mouth and talk, sometimes people say they are amazed of my intellect. I don't know if that's because I truly speak in a way that people can understand or feel a certain way, or because they don't expect it. I don't know. That's something I am curious about.
I can remember back when I was getting ready for the NBA, going through media training, going to certain camps - they almost teach you to not say anything that will get you any backlash or not say anything out of the norm, and what you're saying could be true to yourself.
At Berkeley, you wore a hoodie and pajamas and Birkenstocks, and that's swag. I was so thrown off. What I thought was cool wasn't cool no more, so I thought about what I actually liked. I started experimenting. I started wearing Birkenstocks. I wanted to dive into the culture.
People will come at me telling me to wear this or wear that. If I don't like it, I don't like it. They couldn't pay me to wear it. If it's something I can rock with, I'll rock it. I'm more interested in being completely authentic to me. In my opinion, being myself is making a statement.
I definitely feel like you have an influence. I'm 21 years old, and I'm thinking about the kids that are from my neighborhood, from my community, that are looking up to me and seeing me handle myself a certain way, so I do feel a responsibility in that sense to handle myself a certain way in front of those guys.
You've got athletes who are politicians, venture capitalists, musicians, rappers, etcetera. It's becoming more of a popular thing to have other interests outside of basketball, and I think that's normal. Just like when people work day jobs, they have interest in sports, they do investments, they do all these other types of things.
There's this idea of America that some people have to win and some have to lose, so certain things are in place to make this happen. Some people have to be the next legislators and political elites, and some have to fill the prisons and work in McDonald's. That's how America works. It's a machine which needs people up top and people down low.