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Growing up, Michael Jordan was my Olympic hero.

My sporting hero was Drazen Petrovic, the NBA basketball player, who was killed in a car accident in 1993. He was a good friend, an unbelievable player, and I dedicated my Wimbledon win to him.

I grew up a Michael Jordan fan; that was my first idol. But my true sports idol was Deion Sanders: he was the person I always wanted to be. I wanted to play two sports professionally, which would never happen, but to me, that was every kid's dream.

My real heroes have always been sportswriters.

I remember being a teenager and watching 40-year-old Michael Jordan compete in his final All-Star game.

One guy that really inspired me was Michael Jordan. I wouldn't say that he inspired me as a sportsman, but I love going back and watching videos of him, especially how he conducts himself in interviews. He always seemed to be very careful about the words that he used and thought about everything differently to anybody else.

I'm not like the next Michael Jordan, but I'm also not what everyone saw me as before I started playing in the NBA, either.

Michael Jordan was a tremendous basketball player.

Obviously I'm not to where Michael Jordan is, but trying to get to some level where he was and just striving for the best. That's what got me here.

As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.