I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn't speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball.
The basketball court for me, during a game, is the most peaceful place I can imagine. On the basketball court, I worry about nothing. When I'm out there, no one can bother me.
I started writing stories when I was six years old. I was a very shy kid, extremely shy, and I had a fabulous first-grade teacher who told me to write.
And the question about if I ever dreamed of making the putt on the last hole of a U.S. Open when I was a kid, no, I didn't. But I hit a lot of game-winning shots on the basketball court when I was a kid.
It's very important, especially in the basketball culture. We like our fashion. Coming into the NBA, you definitely have to step it up because you're competing on and off the floor. Not only on the court, basketball-wise, but a lot of us take pride in our style, too.
I was a very shy kid. Very shy. But I started doing theatre when I was six years old, and that really changed something. My more playful side came out of me.
The stuff I've seen and lived and survived. Gun to my head, cops coming to your house. I had the confidence of telling myself that I'm going to make it. Everything I've been through, I could've had a mental breakdown, but I kept it together. If I didn't have that confidence I wouldn't have made it. That confidence has nothing to do with basketball.
When I became a Sigma Chi it was great, because they were the pople I enjoyed being with and I was very proud of the association. It was kind of an instant confidence builder for me--that what I considered the best fraternity on campus had actually wanted me. And I had always been very shy and without a lot of confidence. So it was a really good social experience and for me it was also a social maturation. It was a great benefit.
I am very shy - really shy - I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself.
The main thing is confidence. I'm gaining more and more confidence to do whatever I want to do on the basketball court, whether it is shooting threes or sprinting to the rim and finishing or ball handling. I'm confident enough because I have worked on it that I am going to do the exact same things in the game.
I was a very shy kid. In 8th grade, I had a teacher who got me into improv.
I never really called people out. It was more along the lines of teasing a person. It started for me in fifth grade on the basketball court.
I was a super shy, shy kid, so that was kind of my way of expressing myself - to mimic what I saw on TV. I was a bit of a weird kid, but luckily my parents encouraged it.
Despite being quite a shy kid, I was in my element with my mates. I definitely wasn't shy then. We had a lot of fun, running around town getting into mischief.
Whenever I'm out on the basketball court, I lace up and just hoop. Whether it's in summertime, at practice, in the games, playoffs, every time I step out on the basketball court, I approach it the same way.
Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can't do every dream that I have.