Pressure can make a diamond. Pressure makes me play better because I don't want to let my teammates or my fans down, and that makes me play extra hard.
To me, I have always been a Rick Adelman fan. I felt like if I had been in his systems, I probably would have been a better player than I was because if you look at his system, it was ideal for me.
A lot of guys... they want to take the big shot, and they talk about it because they're scared of it. You never heard me talk about it. You heard a lot of guys talk about it. But you don't have to talk about it, because if you have the confidence in yourself, and your team believes in you, you don't fear anything. You don't fear losing.
25 was my number in high school and college. But when I got traded to Lakers, it was retired, and Derek Fisher had 2, so I was stuck with 5. Nothing more special behind it than that.
If I played basketball, and you played with me, and all of a sudden you become my head coach, there isn't anything you can tell me, dude. Because your years in the league were just as long as mine. Why are you coaching me? That's one of the things that I hate.
Every year's going to be a what-if. That's the game of basketball. What if a guy turns his ankle? What if a guy gets in a car wreck coming to the arena? There are so many different aspects that could happen that nobody knows. Only the man upstairs knows.
You know what's funny, I really hate Par 3's. I feel like you have to be perfect from jumpstreet. But on Par 5's, you can mess up a little bit, but you still have time to adjust before you get to the hole and still end up with a birdie or a par.
I had a teammate whose motto was, 'If I make a million dollars, I must spend a million dollars.' I was like, 'If I make a million dollars, I'm hoping I can keep a million dollars.'
Sometimes, as an athlete, you think everything you touch can turn into gold.