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A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you're going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.
Look at the teams that have been successful in the NBA. Yes, you have big, glamorous cities like L.A. But Miami has won, and so has San Antonio. Oklahoma City is a very successful team. They're not the biggest markets.
In 1979, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league. I remember that. Soon after this, the story began to be repeated ad nauseam: the NBA, a tottering mess in the seventies, was saved in the eighties by these two.
I remember placing the New Era cap on my head at the 2017 NBA draft - that moment changed my life. I'm excited to be a part of a brand that has a strong sport heritage and look forward to being a part of their history.
The NBA is a difficult thing because the head coaches, they definitely have one of the more difficult jobs and one of the jobs with, I guess, little amount of security as possible. There's so much turnover all the time.
There will always be a certain segment of the population who turns on an NBA game or turns on a college game and hears my voice and objects to my presence. I've conceded that. I can't please everybody. I don't even try.'
Portland doesn't read like a basketball town, unless you remember what the NBA was like before it exploded into the mainstream in the Eighties: back when cities like Seattle, Baltimore, and Philadelphia moved the needle.
That's sort of a trick question, and I don't have a trick answer. Next question, please. You're not going to get me with that question today, buddy...I'm a veteran at this, buddy. Can't get that with me, buddy. Not today.
When I was, like, 4 or 5, I'd just always tell - my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I got older. And I would just be like, 'I wanna be Kobe.' She'd be like, 'You wanna be in the NBA?' 'No, like, I wanna be Kobe.'
I think the American sports culture has the idea that professional athletes need so much, like flying private planes, which obviously we don't, but that's the American sports culture when they think of the NFL and the NBA.
I think it makes the game much easier to play once you have a good cohesion off the court. I think that's big because you come into a locker room at the NBA level, there's so much emotion, so much pride in the locker room.
A couple jobs that I would love to do are hosting a television show, sideline reporting for the NBA or NFL, on-camera hosting for an entertainment network, event planning for a PR company or resort and, of course, WWE Diva!
The best example is the NBA, with high intensity and long breaks. During the season, the NBA teams play every three days. That's a lot, and they also travel far. But from the end of May until October, they have their break.
I was in love with the triangle because it was so different to what everybody was doing in the NBA. Everybody else was dribbling down, throwing it into the low post, and then their guy would go to work. To me, it was boring.
40-minute game at Duke - they got soft rims - I'd probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn't pass the ball. I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a 'NBA Live' or an 'NBA 2K7' game: you just shoot with one person.
Back in the NBA's pre-mask era, ballers with busted noses or orbital bones had two unappealing options: Sit out and heal, or strap on a Michael Myers-looking opaque face shield closely related to that worn by hockey goalies.
I think the new ball is terrible. It's the worst decision some expert, whoever did it, made. It's terrible. It's like touching an exotic dancer and then going and touching a plastic blow-up doll. You know, it feels different.
This is always one of my big pet peeves is that 65% of NBA players, three years out of the NBA, are broke. I mean, so, maybe maturing a little more on the front end and getting an education might serve you well down the road.
It's great, just to even get mentioned in the category with the type of person like Dwyane Wade, one of the best NBA players in the league today. It's great, and that makes me work even that much harder to be better than him.
The odds were against me when I arrived at Central Arkansas. I was barely 6-foot-2 and didn't have a scholarship. But I always felt I could make it to the NBA; it was as if I had foreseen my future, and I knew I would make it.
I'm just playing basketball. I just want to be a great player. That's it. That's all I'm thinking about. If the other stuff comes, it comes, but I'm just fortunate to play in the NBA Finals and just to play basketball, period.
Even though I played in the NBA, we tried to give our kids as normal a life as possible. We gave them everything they needed, not everything they wanted, and they had to work for what they wanted. I think that mentality helped.
If you look at all the top shooters in the NBA, guys that might be specialists like how I see myself, they're always 40 percent and above. So, that's a personal goal for me to get into that elite three-point shooting percentage.
A lot of people don't understand that playing in the NBA, the toughest thing is to win an NBA championship. I was in the NBA 15 years. I'd been in the playoffs. I'd been in the Finals. But it took me 15 years to finally win one.
It's easy for especially NBA players to get caught up in the stress of the job, to get caught up in negativity and in what other people think, and it's hard, but the best way to live is to keep things simple and enjoy every day.
During my senior year, there were NBA scouts at my games. At some point, I guess, I started hoping I'd get drafted by a team where there would be a great situation for me. As it turned out, Portland was the best situation for me.
I think the NBA just, overall, when you need somebody to blame, the first person that you go to is the coach. But at the end of the day, you need the right players that match each other. Not just the best players. Chemistry helps.
Growing up, I didn't know anyone that was a watch collector or into watches, but I was always kind of curious about them. Before the NBA Draft, I knew I was going to get drafted, and I wanted to commemorate that by buying a watch.
Yeah, I had a good relationship with Coach Blatt. I enjoyed playing for him. But the NBA is, first and foremost, a business, and as much as you may have liked the situation you were at, sometimes it just doesn't work out your way.
I'm blessed just making it to the NBA. That was my first goal and dream. Playing with Kobe and Shaq and for a coach like Phil Jackson, and then going to play with guys like Jordan and Jerry Stackhouse, it's just a crazy experience.
Oklahoma residents are known for not backing down from a fight in the political arena, on the gridiron, NBA courts or rodeo arenas, but in their reaction to the bombing, they knew intuitively they would not find restoration in rage.
The thing that surprised me is you hear a lot about NBA guys, do they really want to be coached? My experience is they really do want to be coached. They want a plan: 'How are we going to win the game?' And they'll follow that plan.
The hardest thing to do is be a point guard, learn how to be a point guard in the NBA as a young player because you gotta earn your respect first of all the old guys, all the old heads. You gotta command where to go, know the plays.
The NBA is getting bigger. Basketball is getting better around the world. There are more players. There are better coaches around it, so that's why there are more international players, not only Hispanic players, but from everywhere.
I'm a numbers guy, and I think numbers sometimes tell stories and sometimes they don't. When you look at the NBA, when teams shoot 45% or better from the floor, what is their record? And if they shoot under that what is their record?
Growing up, people will tell you that you have a better chance to become an astronaut than becoming an NBA player. So when you finally get to the NBA, you've beat the odds. So when you put on that jersey, everything else is downhill.
I want to thank the NBA and U.S.A. Basketball. Words can't describe my feeling. I was a small town kid from Hamburg, Arkansas, and you provided me a platform to live out my passion, the game of basketball, on the world's grandest stage.
What's being considered now is solidifying my place in the NBA. Keep focusing on the grass roots, because I want the next guys to be good. Right now, all I'm doing for camps and academies and stuff, I'm just finding the next NBA player.
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 remember I wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be in the NFL or NBA or something, and I don't think I dreamed of being a benchwarmer. I'm sure I wanted to be the best. But I didn't really ever think I was going to be a famous musician.
Even people back home, when I went to the NBA they were questioning whether I was good enough, I'm skinny, I don't have outside shot. As a player, sometimes that criticism, you just have to take that and try to convert it into motivation.
I agreed to film after my rookie year in Golden State. I was more used to cameras and felt that my journey to the NBA was a story worth sharing. Little did we know how much bigger the platform and documentary would become after Linsanity.
Unfortunately, music is a male-dominated industry. It's not that there aren't plenty of women working in the industry, it's just, the higher up you go... it's like how women who play in the WNBA make so little, compared to men in the NBA.
I'm a black kid from the ghetto of Coney Island, Brooklyn, who only ever dreamed of playing in the NBA. So to have that dream come true but then go on this second journey in China... it's so far beyond anything that kid could have imagined.
You know how many people would give up their life to get in one NBA game or NFL game or get one fight? Just to do something that has been a dream and they've aspired to do for their whole life - can you imagine what that means for a person?
I always look at the NBA as kind of a muddled mess in the regular season, and then you just get in the tournament, just get in. And then the great teams just get on a roll and play well or the team that is hot gets hot and goes and wins it.
My dream was to be in the NBA. I wasn't really focused on being a star player on a team. I just wanted to make it to the NBA. I've been blessed for the opportunities to be in the Finals, been in the playoffs ever since I've been in the NBA.
I've never found NBA owners to be deferential. I never considered them to be reliant. All that I do is knock myself out to represent their interests the best way I can and sometimes tell them, as part of my job, what they don't like to hear.
I would love an extension, who wouldn't? If they offer me a $35 million-a-year extension, I'll sign it right now. I won't even read the contract. I'm just here to take care of business and I know can help give the city what it's looking for.
When I was a little kid I used to go on the playground and say: today I will shoot like Bird, pass like Magic, jump like Mike, be quick like Zeke. I am thankful to them, since without seeing them do things they did, I wouldn't be in the NBA.