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.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Everybody in the NBA works on their game. I just tried to follow that lead when I was in high school, college - and now.
I was in school to play basketball; I wasn't trying to be a doctor. It's hard to talk about the NCAA rules and everything that happened in the past because I've just been focused on practicing and getting ready... I was trying to reach my dreams, and that's to play in the NBA.
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.
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.
But I got drafted out of high school, and my mother wasn't having it. She was like, you're not about to think that you can just play ball, because if you get hurt, you're going to be out of luck.
The thing with NBA teams, a lot of times they just want to get you back on the floor to play, so as a player you've got to be very, very smart.
If someone were to ask me before I made the NBA, you going to have to go through all this, you're going to have to sign your soul away to play in the league, I still would have done it.
I ask myself why I do it. Maybe it's to prove I'm still around. It takes a lot out of my body. I'm not an NBA player anymore. At my age, very few people can handle it.
You need to possess more than a little nastiness to play basketball at the highest level.
I kind of knew. I said, 'Yeah, I'm not going to be able to play in the NBA. That's just not going to happen. Let that dream go.'