I see myself as a Premier League player. If I see myself as a Championship player, that's not good enough. You have to aim higher and if you come just short then it's not too bad.
I see myself as being a long-term England player - I am 100 percent focused here to try and get into that team.
I don't know, scene stealing is something I see as, people look at it, it could be a positive thing, but I really like to think of myself as a team player. It's kind of like one player can make the other teammates better, kind of like Larry Byrd dishing off.
I don't like it when a player says, 'I like freedom; I want to play for myself.' Because the player has to understand he is part of a team with 10 other players. If everyone wants to be a jazz musician, it will be chaos. They will not be a team, and nothing will be possible.
I just consider myself a player, a team player.
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've been the best player on every team that I played on, so if I can't be the poster child of your team, then what else is it? It's got to be a black-white issue. Every white player I know who's the best player on their team is the poster child of that team.
I think the only thing that matters is you win as a team and you lose as a team. And so the team needs to understand that no one player is bigger than any other player. Everybody has a role... Every single role is important.
Of course team spirit and team's strategy matters more than anything else as far as the team is concerned. As far as I am concerned, if the presence of one player is affecting the morale or the spirit of the team, then we might as well rest that player for a while.
Personal success means nothing if it isn't aligned with the success of the team. I consider myself to be a team player more than anything else.
Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game.
You need experience around you when you are a young player. You need to know how to run a team, to lead a team and to play as a team which means, your team has leaders but you still function as a team.
I never look at myself as a black player. I think of myself as a hockey player that wants to be the best player in the league.
A winning player is nothing more than a player on a winning team. A losing player is a guy who played on a losing team that year.
Usually when you play a team, you want to focus on one line. Pittsburgh is the only team where you have to focus on one player [Mario Lemieux]. When he's coming toward you, all you see is him.
A gifted player, who is not a team player, will ultimately hurt the team.