“If I’m not getting older and more mature at 31, then something’s wrong.”

Everybody is their own person.

I am sick of defending myself, and I am not going to keep on doing it.

If we lose games, and I don’t score a lot, they gonna say I’m not scoring enough.

Being older, I can’t imagine a parent not wanting to be in their kid’s life. I will just never understand it. To me, it’s priceless.

I knew I was gonna be the number one pick, but I didn’t know.

I gave everything I had to basketball. The passion is still there, but the desire to play is not. It was a great ride.

My dream was bigger than anything else. My fight and me wanting to fulfill what I wanted to be in life. That was enough to keep me strong enough to endure anything.

When you are not practicing, someone else is getting better.

Just understand that there’s going to be some ups, there’s going to be some downs.

Being in a fishbowl, everybody looking at every move you make, talking about everything you do – it’s just a hard life to live.

I surround myself with people who make me laugh.

Sometimes it used to hurt so bad when people used to say stuff about me. It still does. But I’m at a level now that I’m like, ‘I ain’t surprised that they said this or that about me.’

All my tattoos are tattoos that I wanted to get, but I couldn’t afford.

As far as how I expressed ‘practice, practice, practice’ over and over again, I wouldn’t take that back because, obviously, that sound bite is great for the media and for the fans, because they love it.

I don’t want to just go to the playoffs, I don’t want to go to the playoffs and win the first round, second round, and not win the whole thing because it’s bittersweet.

Everybody talks about that one when they first meet me. ‘Man, I still remember the play you shook Jordan.’ Everybody gonna always remember it because it was Jordan.