I'm a fan and a friend, I met them in 1974 when I first joined the NBA and my life has never been he same since. I became the basketball player I was because of the Grateful Dead.
I grew up believing that one person could make a difference. In Indiana, you saw that with basketball. The small town could beat the big town, like in the movie 'Hoosiers.' That is one of the things that attracts me to entrepreneurs.
I played against Kobe a lot when I was in high school during the summers, even in college, just being that guy in L.A. coming up. He always gave me advice here and there, and even the smallest things stuck with me. I watched every single thing that Kobe did, every game, every move. He made me a student of the game.
You walk into the playgrounds in Shanghai and Beijing, and you see youngsters who are shorter, shaking and baking and having attitude. And Jeremy Lin is going to inspire all of them.
I don't want to be Kobe, I want to be LeBron.
I had this DVD that my coach in Cameroon had mailed to me when I first came to America. It was an hour-long tape of Hakeem Olajuwon and some other legendary big men. I probably watched that DVD every single day for three years.
Since I was a kid, I dreamed of making it to the league and having the type of impact on the game Michael Jordan had and continues to have today.
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.
Huge Kobe fan growing up. My dog's name is Kobe.
In my era, where I'm from, I only had Donald Whiteside. He's from Englewood and he's the only one that came out of Englewood. Other than him, I really didn't have anyone else to look up to that was from my area. So in seeing him, I never gave up hope, just kept playing and then I realized that I might have a future in basketball.
I grew up - obviously I'm from Philly, where Kobe is from, so we grew up idolizing Kobe. He meant everything to us.
Michael Jordan was a cultural icon that everybody on the playground wanted to be. The Bulls dynasty was a huge part of my childhood and it was the peak of my basketball interest as a kid.
When LeBron came into the league, I was 9 years old. So I grew up watching him play.
I just really try to model my game after Steph Curry.
Larry Bird is like a basketball god to me for what he's done for my career.
All I used to want to do was shoot fadeaways like Kobe because he was my favorite player.
I'm very thankful to players like John Stockton and Spud Webb. They've made it possible for someone like me to make it. I think teams are actually looking for one player under 6-feet now, because they make things happen.
A lot of players will tell you, 'When I was a kid, I watched Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron, Magic, and I wanted to be just like them.' For me, it wasn't like that at all.
I grew up watching Kobe and all these other dudes, but I was in love with that Oklahoma City Thunder team with James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant.
I always watched Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, and I said I could be playing on the court with them.
LeBron James has always been the biggest one - I just love to watch him. I'm a big fan, and he's a big inspiration of mine.
Working with all of these kids is great. It doesn't get any better than this, to come down and inspire kids who want to play the game of basketball and put smiles on their faces.
Dirk was obviously a player that I looked up to. In high school I actually wore No. 41 in honor of Dirk. He was the first player where I was like this guy is seven-feet tall and shooting jump shots and shooting threes, this is what I want to be like.
Even when I wasn't a shooter, when I was younger, I used to watch Rip Hamilton. He was one of my favorite players with the way he moved without the ball.
I had the Kobe jersey. I would do the Kobe walk. I would walk around the house doing the Kobe stare-down face. Anything you can name, I was idolizing him, trying to be like him.
