I'm excited about what the future will bring and I think the best is yet to come.
A win is a win, regardless of how you look at it.
I had to develop the mentality and stay positive about making my comeback.
I know that all good things must come to an end and I've had an incredible ride. I just want to end it on the right note.
Tough times don't last, but tough people do. And I've been through some tough times, and I know a lot of people can recall tough times, and maybe are going through some tough times right now, but they don't last.
I think in every lesson there's a blessing, and there's so many blessings from all the lessons I've had to go through in life.
Once my doctor began treating my kidney disease, my greatest challenge was the constant exhaustion. Fortunately, my doctor explained that anemia was causing my exhaustion and that people with serious illnesses, like kidney disease, may be at increased risk for anemia.
I am reaching a point in my life where the basketball chapter in my life is slowly closing from a competition standpoint.
I was hurting. I had some ailments I was dealing with. It's not like I was holding out.
We got babies raising babies, and its important for us as responsible adults to go out and do what we can to make sure that our kids are steered in the right direction.
I can still play this game at a high level; I've proven that. I want to be home. I want to be close to my family. I want to be close to my foundation and my business interests.
I want to live 50 more years. I'm 33 years old... and I want to live to at least be 80 and see my kids grow up and see my grandkids. That's important to me.
I've got to worry about Alonzo Mourning, because a year or two ago there was a chance that Alonzo Mourning wouldn't be standing here talking to you. That's the cold reality of it.
There's a disappointment there because I still feel there's an emptiness in my career that just wasn't filled.
When the new ownership came in, they made some decisions I wasn't pleased with. And when they changed the whole aspect of it, I just totally lost interest.
I've got to make some decisions just like any other player that has ever played this game, that eventually the clock stops, their basketball clock stops.
I had individuals in my life to help me make the right decisions because it wasn't about them accepting handouts. It was about them making the right decisions for me.
I feel like in America, we don't have a kid problem. You think about all these issues that these kids are dealing with, we have an adult problem. We have adults that do not place the priority on our kids to get a valuable education.
So many people feel that once you reach a certain age then it's time for you to retire from a sport you love. I don't think that's true at all. I think age should not dictate that.
If I would have listened to other people back in 2000 telling me I should have stopped playing basketball because of a kidney disease, I wouldn't have won a world championship.
