“I’m playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition-that’s what I’ve always wanted.”

Basketball is my refuge, my sanctuary. I go back to being a kid on the playground. When I get here, it’s all good.

I wouldn’t say I’m a ball hog. I’m a shooter. I don’t necessarily hog the ball, but I put them up though. I definitely much rather shoot it than pass it. That’s just how I am.

This is an award I couldn’t have won on my own. I can’t thank these guys enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers.

Friends come and go but banners hang forever.

If you don’t believe in yourself nobody else will.

I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

You have to rely on others to have success as a group.

I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.

The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.

I never tried to prove anything to someone else. I wanted to prove something to myself.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

I enjoy playing at the heart of it is just a kid who really loves playing the game of basketball.

Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.

Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.

We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

If we want to defend the country, we have to defend against who’s coming in.

I could easily have decided that life was cruel, that being black meant everything was stacked against me.

The miscegenation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women.

Nobody wants to be in a room or their business to be funded because they’re a woman. They don’t want to be discriminated against because they’re a woman.

I’m fighting against becoming soft. That’s the worst thing you can say to a basketball player.

If you come to me and say, ‘Hey look I’m a racist,’ or ‘I discriminate against blacks,’ or ‘I don’t like you because you’re African American.

When you’re playing against a whole bunch of All-Stars, it’s like a video game. There’s so much talent on the floor at once.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.