I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.
The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.
If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.
I demand more of myself than anyone else could ever expect.
Goals determine what you're going to be.
I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals.
One of the most predictable things in life is there will be change. You are better off if you can have a say in the change. But you are ignorant or naive if you don't think there will be change, whether you want it to or not.
Being a typical Pisces, I might have experienced mood shifts, but I don't remember any depression, or needing to do anything, or to have someone bring me out of being depressed.
And I continued to grow until I was 25 years old.
But you know, we have a very normal family. We've had our ups and downs. You know, we've had our issues, but we've had great cause for celebration.
When I get a chance to power jump off both legs, I can lean, twist, change directions and decide whether to dunk the ball or pass it to an open man. In other words, I may be committed to the air, but I still have some control over it.
I liked the game, I enjoyed the game, and the game fed me enough, and gave me enough rewards to reinforce that this is something that I should spend time doing, and that I could possibly make a priority in my life, versus other sports.
One of the things in the back of my mind is that, after my sports experience, I never want to be, totally consumed by any one endeavor, other than my family life.
When the crowd appreciates you, it encourages you to be a little more daring, I think.
Teachers are sort of faced with a thankless task, because no matter how good they are, unless they find a way to personally rationalize the rewards of their effort, nobody else is really going to do it for them en masse.
When I went to Philadelphia I was 26 years old and really sitting on top of the world. Family life, a professional career, plenty of friends and associates, and a good reputation, a wish list that could be the envy of many.
And from the first time I picked up a basketball at age eight - I had a lot of difficulty when I first picked up a basketball, because I was a scrub - there were things that I liked about it.
You can feel the vibes, feel the people pulling for you.
In a lot of areas of my life, particularly in my teenage years, I began to think about the world, and to think about the universe as being a part of my conscious everyday life.
When I played, the owners had the power. The prisoners are running the prison now, not the warden. The warden is strong and he has say so but, the balance of power is definitely with the players.
