A Quote by RJ Barrett
It's the NBA summer league and everyone's out there fighting. It's been a great experience for me.
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My mentality's always the same, whether it's summer league, D-League, NBA, wherever it is.
I'll never forget the 2019 edition of International Fight Week for a couple of reasons: Not only did I experience my first earthquake, but I also got to work as a sideline reporter for three NBA Summer League games.
Normally a summer league is a dry run for training camp, gives the guys an idea what training camp looks like, and then summer league, you're not really playing against NBA rotation type players, so not a good example of the talent level you'll be facing, but the fall practices give you a good head start.
Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA.
My dad has kind of been the standard for me, he played 16 years in the league, and since I've been in the league, every year that I go through and deal with the scratches, the bumps and bruises, just the grind that it is to go through one NBA season.
I've been lucky enough to play on NBA teams I really enjoy, teams where I've liked everybody and had fun, and had that college kind of experience with an NBA team. When you have that, and I don't know that everyone does, but when I've had it, that's what it's all about.
Everyone in the world disagrees with me, including some managers, but I think managing in the American League is much more difficult for that very reason (having the designated hitter). In the National League, my situation is dictated for me. If I'm behind in the game, I've got to pinch hit. I've got to take my pitcher out. In the American League, you have to zero in. You have to know exactly when to take them out of there. In the National League, that's done for you.
I'd say in the NBA, we have a league that really encourages players to stand for what they believe in. And I think that has created a great relationship between the players and the league.
Obviously in the NBA, winning is everything; every NBA player will tell you when you are in a winning situation that's what this league is about. That one year in Phoenix when we went to the Western Conference finals was amazing; Portland when we got to the second round was a great year.
I came into the league fighting, and it looks like I'm going to go out fighting.
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.
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.
Everyone knows Summer League isn't the real deal.
The actual act of sitting out doesn't directly fight systemic racism. But it does highlight the reality that without black athletes, the NBA wouldn't be what it is today. The league has a responsibility to our communities in helping to empower us - just as we have made the NBA brand strong.
To be honest, I think NBA experience and years trumps everything else. It's unfortunate but when you come from somewhere else it's known that you don't have NBA experience and the NBA is so different to everywhere else so in that sense you need those years.
It disturbs me that Liverpool are not in the Champions League and fighting for the Premier League.
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