METTA WORLD PEACE

It's weird, the evolution of a person. You understand yourself, you understand your surroundings. Then, when you understand who came before you, once you understand that about yourself and the energy that you came to this planet with, you understand more about yourself.

I think coaches really do matter because they see the game, and we just play the game from a different point of view, so they're able to give us a lot of tips and a lot of pointers, and I think coaches are really, really important.

If you can be the best from Queensbridge and actually make it out, then you must be pretty good.

I shake everybody's hand before the game, but Oklahoma City, they don't shake hands. Only some of them, but I don't think they really shake hands before the game.

Nothing will distract me from my focus, my galactic mind.

I'd heard of the name 'Big Brother' before. I didn't realize that it was on TV for 20 years. My manager told me, ''Big Brother' wants you.' I said, 'I don't feel like watching it, and I don't know what I'm getting into.'

Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world.

When you play angry, you can't focus.

Metta World brings championship mentality. That's it. One thing. That's what I do.

For me, I saw a psychologist because I wanted to connect more with people, with the earth, my environment. I want to connect more to my family.

I spent a lot of my career fighting coaches. When coaches told me don't shoot, I'd shoot anyway.

Kobe is amazing. He's extremely competitive.

I didn't know how to get along with others. I didn't even know how to be in the same room with other people. Then, after a while, you learn.

I grew up playing basketball on the streets of New York City, and it was very, very rough, and I started playing in the NBA in the same way.

Sometimes it's good to be ready for the unpredictable. I'm glad that I can go through unpredictable situations. It's a good thing.

I always had the street mentality, but when you're older, you get more mature.

I remember I came into the NBA in 1999; the game was a little bit more rough. The game now is more for kids. It's not really a man's game anymore.

I have a street mind. My whole mindset when I first got to the NBA was, 'I'm bringing that street to the game,' and, 'I'm going to be the hardest guy on the court; I'm going to be the hardest guy on the planet.'

I've learned a lot from my own kids. Actually, my son was the reason why I got involved in other things outside of basketball.

I'm going to watch basketball regardless of whether I coach or watch it on TV.

With MJ and Kobe, what you get is you get people who is talking trash to you and backing it up.

For me, basketball was always about survival because I was just trying to get out the hood, right? When I got to Chicago, I'm like, 'I'm just trying to survive, and anybody I got to step on or break, so be it.'

I work hard. That's what people should know about me. I work hard. I eat right. I'm in the gym.

I've had so much great teaching, and I'm one of the best defensive players to ever play the game on the wing.

Everybody has different issues, good or bad, that they carry with them on the court. It affects you. And for me, it affected me to where sometimes I would be overly aggressive and, in other ways, it would affect people to where they can't perform on the court.