“Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.”
“You have to be able to accept failure to get better.”
“Commitment is a big part of what I am and what I believe. How committed are you to winning? How committed are you to being a good friend?”
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
“No matter how good one individual is, it takes a whole team to win a championship.”
“If I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.”
“Warren Buffett told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don’t go back on it.”
“Ever since I was a kid, I was always the winner.”
“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
“Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And the rent is due every day.”
“My dream has become a reality now, and it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
“Once you become a professional athlete or once you do anything well, then you’re automatically a role model… I have no problem being a role model, I love it. I have kids looking up to me and hopefully I inspire these kids to do good things.”
“I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.”
“I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.”
“I think the reason why I’m the person I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger.”
“Something just doesn’t pop under your nose; you have to work for it.”
“I like criticism. It makes you strong.”
“All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you’re not good enough or strong enough or talented enough. They will say you’re the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. They will tell you no. a thousand times no. until all the no’s become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no. Quite firmly and very quickly. And you will tell them yes.”
“Greatness is defined by how much you want to put into what you do.”
“I’m confident with my ability.”
“I know I’m not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don’t feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.”
“I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.”
“I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.”
“Winning is a huge thing for me.”
“There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself.”
“I’m going to use all my tools, my God-given ability, and make the best life I can with it.”
“When you have that respect from your teammates, it makes it a lot more comfortable.”
“Nothing is given. Everything is earned.”
“You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed. You’re not gonna succeed all the time and I know that.”
“Sometimes your best effort just isn’t good enough.”
“I’m a guy who believes in unfinished business.”
“When you work out or you’re doing anything active, it’s more fun as a group. You may lose track of the time, and the next thing you know, you’re working out for two hours because you’re having fun.”
“You hate makes me stronger.”
“To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win.”
“Maybe my pain was motivation.”
“As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.”
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”
“People will hate you, rate you, shake you, and break you. But how strong you stand is what makes you.”
“I think the reason why I am who I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger.”
“Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.”
“Ask me to play, I’ll play, ask me to shoot, I’ll shoot. Ask me to pass, I’ll pass, Ask me to steal, block out, sacrifice, lead, dominate, anything. But it’s not just what you ask of me. It’s what I ask of myself.”
“I gave everything that I had, I was playing as hard as I could.”
“If you put everything together as far as my mind, my body, my game. If you put everything in one bottle, this is probably the best I’ve been.”
“Maybe my pain was my motivation.”
“I do have motivation. A lot of motivation.”
