My teammates at Duke - all of them, black and white - were a band of brothers who came together to play at the highest level for the best coach in basketball.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I know most of the black players who preceded and followed me at Duke. They all contribute to our tradition of excellence on the court.
My brother Larry. He taught me how hard work and dedication to the game was the only way to make it. He's taken care of all my business activities for me and my family for many years, and I thank him for that.
As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke.
I was homecoming queen. I was star of my basketball team.
My mother was a champion high-jumper. My three brothers are basketball players. We've all been very athletic.
All the colleges I played, most of the colleges, they were white.
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.
Michael Jordan and Magic and myself all learned how to play the game in college programs that emphasized the team.
My dad was the one who really loved basketball, and he was the one that put the basketball in my hands, and my mom was 'Team Mom' of all my teams. I used to play for three or four teams at once and she would just spend her entire afternoon driving me from practice to practice to practice.
The three greatest people in my life were white, OK. My high school coach, my high school superintendent and my mentor in Manhasset, Long Island.