If you're a great defensive player, you're a great defensive player 100% of the time. You can't be a great defensive player half of the time because you didn't get the ball once or twice. That can't sidetrack you. It's got to be 'I live for my defense, and my offense I'll get. But I can't let it affect my defense. Nothing affects my defense.'
I've always thought of myself as the best defensive player in the league, and I want to play like the best defensive player in the league.
I want people to see me as a two-way player. A defensive player and an offensive player.
I have three Defensive Players of the Year. Only one other player has done that. But being a defensive lineman, it's hard to control the game.
Every year, I strive to be the best defensive player in the league.
It's tough at first. You realize in the NBA, it's not easy. Each and every night, you're playing against that player that was the best high school player, that player that was the best player on his college team.
You can look at every game, some where I've been a defensive player and others where I've had an impact.
It's something I take a lot of pride in doing, in being the best defensive player in the world, in helping my teammates every night.
You have to use your mind n the NFL. Every player is smarter. Defensive backs bluff and disguise coverages to try to fool you.
Every year they are making the game harder and harder for a defensive player to play.
For every team in the playoffs, their defensive intensity, their defensive attention to detail just becomes greater.
I'd take the Defensive Player of the Year any day over an All-Star selection. There's only one of these in the whole league every year.
Especially going from an attacking player to a defensive player, your whole mindset has to change. You have to work on one-v-one defending versus one-v-one attacking.
How can I ever dog Derek Jeter? It's impossible. There is nothing to knock. He's a great defensive player. He's a great offensive player.
I think I'm a good offensive player, good defensive player. I do it on both ends of the floor.
Every player wants to play. That's pretty normal. Every player is unhappy when he's on the bench. That's pretty normal, too. But it's football: only 11 players can start, and the coach has his game plan for each game.