I'm blessed. I'm going to get to do something I love to do and get paid a lot of money for it.
I am used to coming in second and then all of the sudden finishing in first because nobody expected me to do it. Kind of like David and Goliath, you know. I'm not the giant.
I want to work for what I have. If feel if you work for what you have instead of it being just given to you, people respect you a lot more because you understand what it takes, you've been there and done it. No one can just say it was easy because you took it. You didn't just get it. You took it.
When I got cleared by doctors and was coronavirus-free, one of the first things I did was get to marching in Boston. I wanted to join the people out there doing all they could to speak out against injustice and hatred and police brutality - folks looking to ensure the future of our country is better than its past.
Me and discrimination, me and racial profiling... we go way back. We've got history.
As a kid back home in Texas, I was followed by sales associates in stores and called derogatory names more times than I can count.
You know it's a real winter when Bostonians are telling you that they've never experienced anything like it.
I pride myself on playing just about every position on the court.
I've always felt like a little bit of an underdog at each level - never the tallest or strongest or even fastest. But one thing I've always tried to do was to play harder than anyone on the court.
The most physical, most annoying games I ever played in my life were against my brothers growing up.
There's not a lot of guys in this league who are tough for me to guard. It's a short list.
Trying to guard Kawhi on an island by yourself is tough. You gotta take the basket away and push him to your help. You want him to take a contested shot as far away from the basket as possible, because his mid-range game is phenomenal.
Back in the '60s, '70s, my mindset and the way I play would be perfect.
Contact is in my nature.
To be honest, I'm worth more than 12-14 million. Just for the things I do on the court that don't show up on the stat sheet. You don't find guys like that.
You need to separate the fans and the players.
Everybody who really knows me knows who I am, who I'm about and what I'm about.
No matter what you say or do, somebody's always going to be there and will have their own opinion of you. There's nothing you can do about it. You just have to live your life.
The Celtics are an amazing franchise and a great organization to play with.
I have a great body for the NBA.
My time at Oklahoma State and in Stillwater has been amazing. I met some amazing people, got to play with some great guys and great teammates, and I built some strong relationships and bonds there.
I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win.
How many guards are doing what I'm doing guarding 1 through 5? How many bigs are guarding 1s the way I'm guarding 5s?
What would I do if I were being guarded by Marcus Smart? There's not much you can do!
I want to win games, win a championship.
I've always been a little out of control since I was a kid.
I am a physical player, no doubt about that, but a dirty player? That's not my reputation.
Whoever you put in front of me, I'm not going to back down.
I've never backed down from a challenge.
I was always taught coming back from injuries the last thing you want to do is have a mental game going on with yourself and psyching yourself out and you just start thinking about the injury.
With the years I've had with U.S.A. Basketball, my loyalty, their loyalty to me with always asking me to come back, that's incredible.
I think my play speaks for itself.
I'm the youngest of four boys. My whole life I had to fight. I had to get down and do things in order to secure my spot in the household. So, coming onto the court, it's nothing different.
I feel like I'm a part of the Boston community.
I feel like Boston is a second home for me.
As a competitor, you're always taught that you want win championships. You want to put yourself in the best place to do that.
I hate losing more than I love winning.
I want to be in Boston. I want to be here. I love this city, I love this team. I love the atmosphere it gives off.
You want to be around people who you feel comfortable with and you feel like show you the love that you show to them.
For my future growth, I'm going to keep working. I'm going to put everything I have in it, and I think everybody knows that that's just the type of person I am.
The uniqueness about me is I don't do one thing perfectly or great. I do a little bit of everything. That's what makes me so unique. I'm just trying to master a little bit of everything.
If I could just get better a little bit each year, then I did my job.
We can't change the past. We can only get ready for the future.
I look at basketball as like a storm. But it's the eye of the storm. The calmest place of it is to be right in the eye of it. And that's what basketball is for me; it's my eye. And while everything else around me is going on,' he continued, 'the destruction and things like that, basketball keeps me calm.
God has blessed me with an ability to go out there and play the game that I love to play. And I don't want to regret that. So, I feel I need to go out every day and play like it's my last.
I don't think it's ever really easy to lose a loved one, especially your mother.
Eighty-two games, it's a long season.
On that court, ain't no such thing as friends and smiling and everything like that.