I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competitively. No one can make you play if you don't want to play.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
As someone who loves being on the field with his teammates, it's hard to hear that you're not going to be the one playing.
I've always been a very harsh judge of talent because if you don't play the game on both ends of the court, and if you don't play hard every night, I'm probably not going to be in love with you as a player. I'm going to respect you because you're good, but these players are unique.
I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.
If a player's not doing the things he should, put him on the bench. He'll come around.
You can't judge the people that you play anyway; you leave that for somebody else to do.
If a player demonstrated that he is the best, and a team decides, even so, we don't want to pay him, as in any other business, he should be able to play elsewhere.
A ballplayer doesn't make excuses.
It's great to be compared to a great player like Tracy McGrady, but I think I'm my own type of player. I'm 6'10'' and a bit bigger than he is as a player. I also think I'm a bit different and play a different position. He's more of a guard, and I can play all around through five.
I'm not a person or a selfish player, but we have to move the ball more, and we have to look further the team game, because we have enough talent to use different players.
We can never thank David Stern enough. His vision to use basketball to improve the quality of our lives to make this world a better and saner place, that guy, is the most important man in the history of basketball.