Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.
When I was a kid, like 14 or 15, I played with the waiters from the hotel, 'cause that was the best game. And these guys, they'd let me play. And they were black guys.
I used to love the feeling of running, of running too far. It made my skin tingle.
It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.
I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.
Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got.
