“I love Oklahoma. The fans have been with me every night. What more can you ask for?”

I’m like a chameleon. I adapt to my situation. It’s very slowed down here. I like it that way. I’m a guy that’s very reserved, quiet and shy myself.

I just want to grow spiritually with the Lord.

My acting coach I’ve got here, Richard Lawson, he’s been doing good, just telling me to calm down sometimes and just be me.

I want the younger kids, the basketball players in high school and college to hear from me and let them know that when you come to the league, this is what happens and this is how I feel as an NBA player. And it’s not all peachy keen.

With everything I do, I just try to be myself.

Basketball is just a platform for me to inspire people.

I always want to win because I never want to sit out on the sidelines outside.

There’s a lot of falses – out there and if I take up for myself, it’s a bad thing. Sometimes you just got to live with it, but for the most part, I’m like look, I don’t want no problems with nobody.

I’m an old-school type of guy.

My friends are happy for me, and that’s all that matters.

Whoever want my spot can play me one-on-one for it.

I’m busy working on every aspect of my game – defense, shooting, rebounding – but I really want to become a better overall team player.

Experience is the best teacher. I’ve been through a lot – going to the Olympics, going to the Finals, having a lot of good games and having a lot of bad games. It’s a rollercoaster ride and I’m just happy I’m a part of it. If it was easy, then everybody could do it.

I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now. And I’m starting to enter my prime.

I’ve just got to let my teammates know in practice, without even telling them, that I don’t think I’m ahead of anybody.

You can’t speak openly about everything.

I’m not talking about Russia in my music. I’ve never been to Russia. I’m not talking about Africa, Switzerland, China.

Climbing the economic ladder has been very hard for me; I still feel a great deal of guilt towards those I left behind.

I began to write when I was seven, and I have been writing off and on ever since. It is still off and on. You can say that when I am on, when I know I have a book which I am going to write, then I write two thousand words a day. That’s so many pages longhand.

Everything’s a film idea if this is what you do.I’ve always been secretly confident that I’d never run out of ideas,because I’ve never had any.

I’ve been more content with just who I am.

Allow me to put the record straight. I am forty-six and have been for some years past.

The biggest thing, and what I told some of the partners in the summit, was me thanking them for their constant support with everything that I’ve been through the last couple years on and off the court.

Old age is a special problem for me because I’ve never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself – a lad of about 19.