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?
For me, my first big heartbreak is actually sports-related. The team went out and got spanked on our home field. I'll never forget how I cried after the game, because I'd been denied the opportunity to help the team in the championship game. It was like the coach forgot what had gotten us there. So, I never got to hold the trophy or savor a state championship. And I'll never forget that first bitter heartbreak.
There's no point in getting too focused on other team's results, otherwise we'll forget to get the result ourselves and then we'll be struggling.
I think of how serious I treat my job and how much I want to be part of a championship environment and team - I sacrifice everything for it.
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.
Especially after going through an 82-game season, the team that's more mentally locked in and focused is usually the team that makes it to the Finals and wins the NBA championship.
That's the one regret I have in all the years that I've played professional sports, that I didn't win a championship in the N.F.L. And that's why you play on any level of team sports: you want to win a championship as part of a team.
Most times we're so focused on what we think we want that we can't appreciate how happy we already are. It's only when we forget about our problems and help others forget theirs that we realize how good we really have it.
You can play and try to get focused for that time, but still the reality of that whole situation is once that game is over you still have to be confronted with what's going on. I think that's where the senior leadership on your football team has to come. They have to understand that we have a responsibility to reach our goals and that's to win the championship.
I'm not trying to get back on a team, but I have tried to stay in shape just in case a team needs a point guard. A championship team. I wouldn't go to any other team.
We get three of the Ball boys on the Lakers together, and we gonna go championship, championship, championship, championship, championship.
You can win a championship, but the amount of fulfillment that I get knowing I've impacted a whole community is bigger than a championship for me. It's what I stand for. It's how I live. And I think that's how the world should try to see itself to impact other people's lives.
I think being a championship-contending team, you have to have a championship-level coach to take you over the top.
It's important as a team that you don't get too excited with a win and you don't get too disappointed with a loss. You have to stay very steady, very focused on that middle ground.
I think when you've been in a band for a really long time, sometimes you don't appreciate what's good about yourself. It's easy to play something and get too focused on some small detail. It's helpful to have somebody around who can say, "No, that was good." Just so you don't get too lost or forget what you do. You need somebody you really trust who has great taste.
Actually when I was overseas I didn't watch any NBA. I was like, 'Forget the NBA,' and this and that. 'Cause I was hurt that I wasn't on an NBA team. I kind of was rebellious when it came to that because I was kind of jealous and envious that I wasn't on an NBA team, so I kind of just focused on my game and focused on overseas.