A lot of times things get blown out of proportion in a negative light, especially in the NBA, ... But there are a lot of players in the NBA who really care about the community and want to use their basketball-playing ability for a good cause. |
a real cool guy. |
Absolutely. I'd trade it in a heartbeat. It's about getting to that elite level. That's what my career is about. |
Against them, you have to play hard on defense. You have to rotate hard, rotate quick and rotate well. |
All in all, we feel like we're playing extremely well. |
And now the shoe's on the other foot. When I was going through it, I wanted people to be patient with me. I'm just reciprocating. |
Any player that was going to come down the lane at that point in time, I was going to let him know that he just can't walk through there. I think we as a team have to do a better job of establishing that. |
As far as carrying the torch for the years to come, I don't know. I just want to be the best basketball player I can be. |
At the end of the season, here we are - playing our best basketball. |
During the regular season, we were trying to find our rhythm and I had to shoulder the scoring load. We know we can start attacking teams as a unit and not me going out there trying to score 40 or 50 points. |
During the regular season, when everyone was trying to learn the offense, Phil and I both knew I was going to have to shoulder the scoring load. Now in the playoffs, everyone has a rhythm for the game and we can start attacking as a union. |
Everybody's been pretty amazed. I got hundreds of calls congratulating me on the game, saying keep it up. |
Everyone is not jumping for joy with finally making the playoffs but it is a big accomplishment for us being that we didn't make it last year and nobody expected us to make it this year and here we are. |
Expectations for us this season aren't very high at all, |
For him to just call me and tell me what a great game it was and how proud of me he is meant more to me than the 81 points. That means more to me than even the game itself, because I idolized him as a kid. |