Lonzo Ball
A lot of things are going to happen that you can't necessarily control all the time, but you can control what you do after it happens. So that's what I try to do, keep my head up, keep moving forward, stay positive and just work hard.Collection: Positive
If you want to be a good shooter, you've got to shoot.
If I'm mad or showing my frustration, the whole team's gonna be like that, techs, and people are going to go down. So I just try to keep the even keel. That's why I don't get too high or too low. I've been playing like that my whole life. It's just natural for me.
I know who I am. People who know me know who I am. That's all that matters.
I just live in the moment.
When I play the game, I play to win.
I can shoot.
No, I don't get nervous when I play basketball.
I think you're either born a leader or you're not.
I feel great in pick-and-roll.
I was kind of forced to rebound at a young age. I was usually at the back in the press of the 2-3 zone, because my brothers were smaller than me. So I usually got most of the rebounds.
It starts the fast-break a lot easier when I get the ball. I don't have to wait for big men to give me it. Just get it and go.
If you mention the Lakers, you think about Kobe.
Obviously, I want to be an All-Star.
I want to be M.V.P. one day. But for me, it's all about championships.
I'm from here, so I know how it is playing in L.A. If you're winning, they love you. If not, they'll find someone else to do the job.
Obviously you have LeBron, the best player in the world, all the attention is on him. A lot of the wins and losses are targeted towards him.
Every team I played for, I pretty much been the dude on it.
Growing up, a lot of my shots came off of me dribbling and shooting it.
I've been good at the game of basketball my whole life, so I'm hoping I can get back to that.
In Chino Hills, everybody is cool with everybody, so I had a lot of friends. My house was kind of the hang out house, where everybody would come over.
I played guard my whole life, and liked having the ball in my hands.
I played baseball too, and flag football, but basketball was the easiest for me. Then when I was 12, my dad asked me what I wanted to do, and I said 'Be an NBA player.' Since then, he started training me.
My dad had me start lifting weights at 12, and for me it was fun.
If you have one guy taking all of the shots, you're obviously not playing very fast, because you have to slow it down and wait for him to get to his spot in the offense. But when you just want the best shot possible, a lot of different people are going to get the ball.
Well, everybody's human, and you're not going to do the right thing perfectly every time. But you mess up and you learn from it and you go on from there.
Actually, I've always been kind of a leader, and it's kind of just stuck with me throughout my whole career.
It helps me get rebounds, I can see over the defense pretty easily, and yeah, I thank God he blessed me with height.
I think I can score. But personally, I like to pass first, because people love people who pass. And I'm a point guard, so my job is to kind of get people open.
I don't like to do a lot of talking.
I think it was tough being a young guy, especially in L.A. All the people looking at you and we had a big responsibility over there.
The way I play, I like to be free.
People are kind of used to me shooting.
Magic Johnson is one of the greatest players to ever play... he's the best point guard to ever play, so I can learn a lot of things from him.
You can always work on everything.
I feel like my game is more like LeBron's than Kobe's, so that's why I think I gravitated toward his game more.
Playing defense out here against grown men is physical.
When it comes down to the last five minutes, it's not about Xs and Os. It's pretty much who wants it more.
That's what happens when you play in L.A. Everybody expects you to do well.
I've been shooting all my life.
Getting on fast-breaks, you don't do that when you let a team shoot 20 free throws in one quarter.
I was just taught, the team goes how the point guard goes.
We're competitors.
Obviously if your head coach expects more of you, you bring it to the table.
It gets frustrating when you play basketball for your whole life and then it gets taken from you for a little bit.
No. 2 pick, you're supposed to do a job - you're supposed to turn the franchise around. And I don't think I did it to the best of my abilities. I didn't live up to that standard.
Melo has a chance to be a better player than me, for sure. I feel at the same age, he's better than me. In real time, I don't think he's better than me. But I'm the big brother so I'm always going to have that edge over him.
It's my life, it's up to me what I want to do with it. And I'm realizing that.
My family's always going to be close.
My family's always going to be together.