Coming off the bench, I'm able to view the game, see how their bigs are playing. And what I bring to the table is energy. The starters go in and run their bigs for a bit. When I check in it's time to punch the clock and play hard.
It was more my uncle - my mom's brother - and my aunt who turned me on to hoops. He was more into basketball and he'd take me to Raptors games. And then my dad started taking me with him. And I started falling in love with the game.
If you look back at Greek mythology and even back before World War 1, every time a team would go out to battle, they'd eat first.
I have to always go back to Tim Horton's, it's my favorite spot. I remember growing up as a kid - my mom, every Saturday morning she'd go the hairdresser and she'd give me two dollars to go buy donuts.
I think that's my job to be a little nasty - to bring that energy, protect the paint and really just protect our guys. That's the role of a big man. It's not cute; it's not pretty being a big. You have to come in and do the little things, do the dirty work.
Well, history always repeats itself, so there's probably a baby Shaq out there in a crib somewhere, sipping on a bottle, and when he gets old enough, he'll bring the post-up center back.
