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I never casually shoot shots, ever. I shoot the same way every time. I shoot the same shots that I'd shoot during the game.
It's easy on teams when you have got superstars. I mean, they're really good. And you give them the ball, and you say, 'Make a play.'
If there's a loose ball, dive on the floor. If you can take a charge, do that. The playoffs are all about scratching. Whatever it takes.
Besides shooting, I think I need to work on everything. I need to get stronger, quicker, work on my ballhandling, and develop a go-to move.
When I came into the NBA, coaches wanted you to shoot a midrange shot or two before you shot your 3 - you know, to get an 'easy one' first.
A lot of things in life, you can be told the right way to do it, but you've kind of got to learn by your own mistakes. It's just human nature.
The NBA is a beautiful job in a lot of ways. But for living stability, thinking you're going to be somewhere for a long time, it's not for that.
Teams are trying to get the advantage over the other team by what kind of reads we can get, how can we measure guys if they're tired - all these things.
I like doing drills and when coaches take you through drills and stuff, but I don't like counting shots and things like that. I just shoot until I feel good.
If you shoot with mechanics where you've got your knees bending in all the way, you're not using your hips properly, you get all of this tendinitis and knee pain.
Not everyone gets to have one of the few super-dominant, all-pro, superstars in this league, and so playing with the pass and playing with space and playing quick is a really good backup.
I don't shoot shots just to shoot shots. I'm always working in a rhythm, working on mechanics. I've got a checklist of the things I need to do with my form, my legs, my arms, all of my mechanics.
I'll see some random guy and really like how he's locking his wrist when he's shooting or how a guy is catching the ball. It can be a little reminder that that's something I have to think about today.
I think some people get just locked into 'this is the way it has to be,' and they're afraid of messing something up. I don't ever want to be that way with shooting or with anything, really - not just shooting.
You don't ever want to be a mechanical basketball player, but as far as technique and things, I like to have certain check points in my shot, certain things that I can count on and think about. It kind of helps me to be consistent.
A lot of guys can shoot two, three, four, five, six, seven, 10 feet behind the 3-point line. A lot of people can do it. It's just, when is it going to be considered a good shot? When are coaches going to encourage you to shoot that shot?
I love thinking about mechanics and having your mind agree with the mechanics. Sometimes you can shoot it correctly, but your mind doesn't think that it's right. So it's like, how do you get your mind to trust that that's the right way to shoot it.
You can visualize, and you can try to trick yourself into thinking a certain way. There's all kinds of things you can do to try to get in the right spot mentally. But at the end of the day, to have real confidence, you've got to be doing good at your craft.
I've always believed the better the players I'm surrounded by, the better I am. I've never tried to think of myself as anything different. I know who I am as a basketball player and I'm never going to try to pretend that I'm more or less, but definitely not more.
Every game is its own thing in the playoffs. When you're in them long enough, you understand. If a playoff series goes six or seven games, it's like a rollercoaster. Your emotions are so up, then they're so down. 'You can't do anything right! Then everything's going your way!'
To have a superstar - he's Allen Iverson - he really took me under his wing and really forced me to shoot the ball and forced me to make plays, and to have him do that for me - and the way he was always in my ear telling me to shoot the ball and supporting me - it's a big deal.
Sometimes it helps to take a couple days off, as weird as that sounds. Every once in a while, I could just shoot so many shots. You can get so, like, intense with it all. It's like in life, right? We're all created for a sabbath day or for a day of rest. You sometimes need that in shooting, too.
That is what shooting is. There is no secret sauce, man. You've got to find mechanics that you can make the same every time, and you've got to do it over and over again, and you can't just shoot for rhythm. You've got to understand what you are doing. You have to focus on those details every day.
Draft night for me - I watched it in my dorm in college. And it started off with just me and a friend, because I knew I probably wasn't going to get picked right away. I thought it was going to be a little later. But, you know, you watch the whole thing. You never know what might happen, so you gotta watch.
It hasn't always been easy. There's a lot of hard moments. Sometimes you learn from the end of the bench. Sometimes you learn from injuries. Sometimes you learn the most through the hard things. If you can keep a good attitude and keep on working, eventually situations change, and you can put those things to use.
I think any of the older guys you can poll throughout the NBA, they're super-regimented. Because as long as that body lasts, your mind should be better; your shot should be better. But the reality is, at some point, your body does break down - you do get older - so it's just, how do you prolong that as long as possible?
LeBron carries a certain weight. You feel him all the time. On the court, off the court, in the organization. I don't say 'weight' in a bad way, but his presence is always felt. He is striving for greatness at all times. Because he's such a magnetic personality and such an incredible basketball player, people follow him.