Every step of the way I think you learn something that makes you a better player, and all those lessons really come out when it matters the most in a championship.
Over the years, I've discovered that lessons in cooking come in two forms. There are the lessons that you never fully learn; skills that you get better and better at, but never quite perfect. Then there are the lessons that you only need to learn once because the results of not following them will literally scar you for life.
I think the biggest thing I want to learn from Kevin Garnett, with him having a ring, is how do I become a championship player? How do I see how a championship team looks like? How do I use myself to be a championship contributor?
It makes you a better player when you're around better competition. If you pay attention, you can learn something.
I think winning a championship, for me, it put things in perspective. You can either be a great player on a so-so team, or you can be a role player on a championship team, or, in an extreme case, a great player on a championship team.
I really enjoy auditions anyway because I think that even if you come out of them, and you go in once and it never goes anywhere, there is something that you bring out of it or a note that will come back to your agent and that's the way you learn.
We can learn from mistakes of others, whether they're kings or our parents. When we do learn those lessons, we're better equipped to make our own dreams come true.
I've tried to improve - defending, attacking, pressing, trying to think before a game, to be more clever, do something before the defender can think of it, to become a better player. That makes me feel good, that hunger to improve in every way.
I think that every guy who has come through New England would say that he gained a lot of knowledge and experience that made him a better football player. But they also learned what it means to be a better teammate, a better husband and a better father. I think cultivating that kind of atmosphere is something we take a lot of pride in here.
The thing is, the future happens. Every single day, like it or not. Sure, tomorrow is risky, frightening and in some way represents one step closer to the end. But it also brings with it the possibility of better and the chance to do something that matters.
Every day, I learn something new. I think one of the most exciting things for a writer is to work on a TV show. It's like a novel. You have a really long time to develop and learn about the characters, and you can just really keep digging in deeper, every week.
I think most of my lessons come from sports. That's why I always emphasise to young kids to get involved in sports because it's where you learn about discipline. It's where you learn to keep going, where if you think you can't make it, you can.
I'm a championship handball player. I'm a championship softball and baseball player. I used to be an extremely talented center in high school in football. I also dabbled in lacrosse and soccer. I'm really good at billiards, darts, shuffleboard.
I think David Johnson is getting better, if that's possible. I think he's a really good player. I think he can do a lot of things. He's big. He's explosive. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. You can line him up out wide. I think he's a very dynamic player.
What makes you better is not playing every single game in a modest championship. What makes you better is playing 10 games in a very competitive league.
Nothing's perfect along the way [in life], and you ride the ups and downs. It's how you come out of those and continue on that I guess really matters.
I think you accidentally learn things in high school that turn out to be life lessons when you are able to step back a bit and study them in more depth.