No one missed more basketball in the history of NBA than I did. I played 14 seasons, on the roster for 14 years, and I missed more than nine-and-a-half full seasons.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There was the misconception out there that I retired after the 2008 season, but that was never the case. I wasn't done with basketball yet, and I'm still not done.
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
I was into basketball, but then once I found contact sports, it was over. I never played basketball again in my life.
I love basketball, but I miss football every time I watch it.
In college, I probably lost a total of about 11 games, and then I came to the Celtics and in my first three weeks we went on a nine-game losing streak.
I hated to miss games... at the height of my career, I missed a lot of games due to... just a hamstring pull. And I hated sitting out. I just hated it. You play for your team, but you also play for the people who attend the games.
I've been on teams that lost a hundred games in a season. I've been on teams that had a shot to make the playoffs and fizzled out at the end.
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.
The caliber of play suffered and attendance declined year by year. Interest in college football was exploding, and there was this new game called basketball.
I didn't like how my NBA career ended because I wanted to go out on my own terms. But nobody tried to believe in me, that I could go back and play. I can still play at 39.
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