After spending more than 17 years playing for the NBA, in the summertime, I always came back to community service and different basketball clinics.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I worked every day - Christmas Eve, birthdays - trying to become a great basketball player. Everywhere I went, I had a basketball.
I've learned a lot from the experiences that I went through in high school, through college and overseas, and just everything in life. That is what prepared me for coming into the NBA, being undersized, no recognition, not getting anything easy, and I have been fortunate to prosper in this league.
I play basketball all the time. Me and my band play every week on the road. That's something that I've never really given up since high school.
When I was younger, I just thought about playing in the NBA.
When I first went to Stevens Point, I never thought I'd ever be close to the NBA. I didn't even think about the NBA. The big start for me was making it to the final cut for the Olympic team, and I was the only one who was going to be back for my senior year of college.
As I look back on the day I signed my professional contract in 1973, I've never gone to sleep wondering if I could pay the bills or take care of my family. That's what basketball has done for me. It's given me the greatest of thrills from high school to college to the Olympics to coaching to broadcasting.
It wasn't until late high school and early college that I gained enough size and skill to make me welcome on intramural basketball teams.
I was into basketball, but then once I found contact sports, it was over. I never played basketball again in my life.
I played college basketball in West Virginia for two years, and then I graduated from NYU with a sports management degree because I realized the NBA's not going to happen.
I never really officially retired from the WNBA, I just left the doors open.