My dad always told me to play hard and know that the people you're competing with and against are working just as hard or harder. So don't let them out-work you.
It was hard when my mother left us. I said to myself: 'You must keep working hard for her.' She was a teacher, a big influence. She made me work harder. So when I'm not doing something right or when I'm not playing or working hard enough, I remember what she used to say to me. She gets me moving. She pushed me to work hard.
Practice makes perfect and if you practice battling and competing and working hard, then that will transfer over in a game. If you practice just kind of floating around out there in practice, you know that's going to transfer over, too. So I think the harder you work and the more you compete, then that's how you're going to play in a game.
Play becomes a distraction, something you don't really need to do. It's not for serious people. They work hard, they don't play hard. Yes, you can say play hard, but that really means, keep working hard, right?
Me being an artist working with dancers and seeing how hard they work, they are the first to show up and the last to leave. They work just as hard, if not harder, than me - and they never get credit for it.
You've got to go out there and play the game the way it's supposed to be played. Then you get people to like you and appreciate your work by just going out there and competing every down. Jerry Rice was looked at in that perspective. He went out there and was a hard-working guy. He was going to give it his all.
I'm not really that hard-working. We've hung out a lot, and you know that I don't work harder than you. Everyone else is just really lazy. People do half a thing, and then they just go out to lunch.
For me, I always try and deliver. Regardless of the situation, I always try and play hard every time I step out on the court. If I don't deliver and play well, then I know I haven't been working hard enough.
My dad told me, 'If you're going to go out there and play baseball, or you're going to play basketball or football, work hard at it no matter what. I want you to have fun with your buddies, but you have to put in the time because this is your craft.' He didn't just want me to be good. He pushed me to that next level.
I'm definitely not the most graceful person out there. I've always been taught to play hard. I don't know how not to play hard. But for some guys it just looks easier. For me, it's not that natural.
As soon as you hear a fighter say, "I'm working smarter, not harder," you always want to bet against that guy. That mentality does not work. You have to work hard. And sometimes that means you are going to work too hard. You are going to decline. You are going to tear down your body and your muscle fibers. You are going to get sick.
My dad was the force behind me early on. He was just infatuated with baseball. He was the one that basically taught me how to play the game. He gave a lot of his time working out with me, practicing and taking me to a lot of different games. It was hard work between both of us.
I love baseball, I really do. I always told my Dad, I'm not gonna make it working... I like to play ball too much. Which I did. I played hard. You gotta work at this game. You really do. And its fun doing it if you do it the right way.
My dad is a part of who I am, and he was a very hard working person and someone who worked to achieve his goals and make sure his family is straight and I always admired that. My mom worked so hard. I had two hard-working parents around me.
I think that since I've had the baby, who's almost two, it's a work-hard-play-hard. Imake a lot of lists, I'm very scheduled, which is hard sometimes, but it keeps me organized - I know Now I can play or Now I've got to work.
Anything I do in life, I always want to work hard, play hard and so I'm still drinking my wine, I'm still eating my McDonald's on Sundays, but I am working hard through the week.
Some people work hard to be something that they're not, and I don't work at all, I'm just me. And that can bother anybody I'm not working nearly as hard as the other guys, and they don't like it.