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Every kid who just played basketball knew about the Boston Celtics. They're one of the few teams who were always on national TV along with the Lakers.
In college, I probably lost a total of about 11 games, and then I came to the Celtics and in my first three weeks we went on a nine-game losing streak.
The whole business of basketball with China, it's just a huge business that enables us to come over and connect with them and continue that fan affair.
A lot of people don't know this: when I was young, I wanted to be a garbage man. I asked my mom, and she said they made good money, and it was steady work.
You see more friendships in the league. It's not like in the '80s when you had enemies, or you couldn't stand this guy, and there were fights all the time.
I'm a competitive player, and I love being on the court. If the NBA cancels the season I'm definitely looking at my options and considering going overseas.
Both teams want to win and they want to do everything possible. You don't think about the fatigue factor. You're just trying to grind it out to get the win.
A lot of players know I've been around 13 years and this is my second lockout. I got a lot of respect. I know what's going on both for the league and the union.
It's all a learning process. You've got to learn from experience, the battles you go through. Some guys continue to grow. Hopefully, that's what I'll continue do.
There's times you want to give up and times you want to move on ... you get so much satisfaction out of staying and sticking with it, and seeing things turn around.
Being in the Final Four was a dream of mine growing up, and I was unable to fulfill that dream, but I feel like I had a great college career and won a lot of games.
The gym was my sanctuary. The place where you could forget about all your worries, your problems, people asking you for money, people asking you to do this, do that.
I'm a basketball junkie and a real historian of the game, so for me to get a chance to express it and give my perspective on a national stage, I'm really enjoying it.
I understand when you have great players on losing teams who are tired of losing, struggling in the playoffs every year. You're the lone star. I've been in that position.
My favorite quarterback is Donovan McNabb. I think he's a complete quarterback. I love the way he can scramble and throw on the run. He can do it all. He can control a game.
I've always been a late bloomer. My body developed late. From ninth to 10th grade, I grew like 3 inches. Just kind of stretched out. I was like 6-1, grew to 6-4 in 10th grade.
I was a typical K-Swiss guy with sweatsuits. I was a ball player, so the ballers, we wore our game shorts to class. We didn't really have a fashion in high school like other kids.
I originally was more into baseball and football, but being in Los Angeles, you just couldn't help but to fall in love with the game of basketball because they had such a winning tradition.
You definitely gotta get more rest as an older player than you did when you were young. You're young, full of energy. You're out, up late, watching movies or out hanging out with your friends.
I love the fact that, if I don't win multiple championships, that I probably won't be mentioned amongst the other guys in Celtics history who've done it before. That type of stuff motivates me.
When you come off a losing season - one of the worst seasons in all of basketball - and get guys like Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, two perennial All-Stars, we felt like we had a championship team.
It's just something I've always loved to do: talk basketball. It's easy for me to give my perspective, my analyst approach to it, because even when I played, I would watch film, talk about the game.
You can't listen to every little thing that's bad or good said about you. I always used that - whenever I heard it, I used it as fuel to motivate me, man. That's how I was raised, whenever I came up.
I remember I didn't know who Jason Williams was, and he got drafted ahead of me. It was just weird. I thought I'd be in the top five, and I slipped all the way to 10, so it was a strange night for me.
A lot of people that I've had around me have been my closest friends since junior high, back when we were exchanging each other's clothes, staying at each other's houses. That was before I had anything.
It's just something about great players when they play in certain arenas or against other great players. They elevate their play. LeBron is one of those guys. He feels the moment. He understands the moment.
My strength comes from my mom. Just seeing what she had to go through to raise us, she wouldn't make excuses; she wouldn't put her head down. So I guess I looked at adversity right in the eye and took it on.
I just take what comes to me. If the drive is there, Im going to take it. If its not there, Ill take a pull-up shot. Im a confident player down the stretch and I feel like I can make the play when I have to.
I think you're a product of your influences, your environment. You see guys with so much talent, but they got the wrong people around them telling them the wrong things. They wind up going down the wrong path.
I've never even been into those supplements or any of that. I don't even drink energy shakes. I'm not into that kind of stuff. You just get me an In-N-Out burger and some Popeye's fried chicken and I'm straight.
If they're not talking about you, you're not doing something; you're not doing anything. So if they're talking about you, you may be doing something right. And when they talk bad about you, you just use it for motivation.
I probably visualize myself, the shots I'm going to get in the game, how I'm going to play defense, what we have to do to stop the other team's best player, what it's going to take out of me, the whole aspect of the game.
I think the most important thing I work on is just my mental approach to every day, my mental approach to the game. How to come in each and every day focused, doing what I want to do, I think that's just the biggest issue.
At the beginning of the season, I set my goal to see if I can lead the league in scoring, because I feel I have that kind of ability. A lot of guys say it, but it's not really in their grasp. I feel that's really in my grasp.
Once people start making comparisons to a player of the past, they want you to be that player. I try to go out there and create my own image, my own style, my own type of game. Right now I can't even think of one guy I've been compared to.
What people don't understand is the summertime is motivation - how willing you're willing to work for the upcoming season - and I think, as older players, once you see that drive fall off in the summer, then I think it's time to hang it up.
Usually, when you win the championship, you party all summer and don't work out. But when I won, I mean, I had my good times, but I used it as motivation to do it again. When you realize you can accomplish something so great, you want to do it again.
Life changes when you have a child, when you have your own family. You become more careful about what you do. You're not going to be out late, going out to clubs, hanging out with your friends. You're going to be at home, taking care of your daughter, playing with her.
I've always been known as a pure scorer, and I've always said if I just sat outside and shot 3s and just really focused on that - coming off of screens and spot-up 3s - and shot six or seven 3s a game, I would probably be more known as one of the greatest shooters in NBA history.
I'm not a guy who goes into the neighborhood, gets beat up by the bully's gang, and then now I want to join their gang. That's just not me. I wanna fight - let's go! I mean, I'm gonna stand up for myself. That's just the competitive nature of where I come from, the era I grew up in.
Understanding who you are is saying, 'You're great; you have tons of confidence, and don't ever forget that.' And that helped me, man. Because when things weren't going right, I thought, 'You've got to remember who you are. Don't stray from that. Don't let these things get you down.'
My brother was a huge Charles Barkley fan - my brother went to Miami. He played power forward, and he always used to tell me stories about Barkley and college. And I watched Barkley growing up. I loved what he brought to the game. His toughness and just his attitude, being as strong he was.
Im just trying to be positive. I like the guys (Im) around. Even though were not at the record Id like to be, even after a loss, guys are mad, but then we have fun and you move on. They look up to me. Ive been around eight years. A lot of these guys were in junior high or high school when I came into the NBA. I see how much of an influence I am off the court. I try to be careful how I approach things on and off the court, because I know these guys are watching.