I could have played more complex stuff. I could have been a busier player. But that's not what I wanted to do. I played what I wanted to play.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
All I wanted to be was a player.
When I was younger I was trying to do what I wanted to do, not what the game wanted me to do.
I played baseball, and that's pretty much it. Basketball came late, this was, basketball was the sport that I tried to master, I kind of mastered baseball, so basketball was one of those things where I wanted to master this game, so that's why I probably play it the way I do.
I know when I left the game, I could have played more. There is no question. I think I could have played at a very high level, too. But I could not play the way everyone wanted me to play. And I was not willing to compromise what I felt was a standard that I had established in this league and, particularly, for our fans at home.
I played baseball because I could make more money doing that than I could doing anything else.
When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn't want to play.
The only thing I'd ever wanted in my life was to be a major-league ballplayer, but I had to admit to myself that I wasn't good enough. It broke my heart.
To me, there was nothing greater than to play for an audience and to entertain people and that has stayed with me all these years.
I'd worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well.
I have been really lucky in my career, with the diversity of it. I get to play really complex people.