NBA Draft Quotes

For me, when I was in high school, that was my ultimate dream, was to make it to the NBA.

I've always wanted to make it to the NBA and be on a team, so whatever team drafts me I'm going to be happy with.

If someone were to ask me before I made the NBA, you going to have to go through all this, you're going to have to sign your soul away to play in the league, I still would have done it.

I always said in my mind I wanted to be an All-Star and show four-year guys in the NBA can be good players as opposed to just one-and-done guys. If I left after my freshman year, I wouldn't have gotten drafted, I probably couldn't deal with D-League and travel on the bus.

Danny Ainge is a genius, man.

Every time you make a jump, whether it's from high school to college or college to the NBA, you're going to hear questions about your athletic ability.

I never said to myself, 'Get to the NBA, be an All-Star, make a $100 million contract.'

I learned that Yao Ming broke his navicular bone like five days before the 2009 draft. From that moment on, all I thought about was going from zero stars to one star. How do you do it?

During my senior year, there were NBA scouts at my games. At some point, I guess, I started hoping I'd get drafted by a team where there would be a great situation for me. As it turned out, Portland was the best situation for me.

I really wanted to get drafted by the Knicks, and it was a dream come true. I wasn't even hearing the boos that night. I was just having a special moment with my family, hugging them.

It's been a dream come true, you know, just making it to the NBA and being drafted by a great franchise like Boston.

You've got to work your way into the NBA. Guys like Seth Curry, it took him a couple years in the G-League.

When I first went to Stevens Point, I never thought I'd ever be close to the NBA. I didn't even think about the NBA. The big start for me was making it to the final cut for the Olympic team, and I was the only one who was going to be back for my senior year of college.

It's hard to speculate, but it was tough when coach Paul Westphal drafted me and wanted me there and then got fired two weeks into my rookie year.

Do I consider the 2003 Draft class the best ever? Yes, absolutely!

Everybody would love to be able to be great and make it to the NBA All-Star Game as a rookie. I mean, that is everybody's goal.

Having my name called to be the first pick for the Phoenix Suns was mind-blowing. Having all that confidence and leading up to that point when I saw Adam Silver come out, I was just waiting for my name, and when he called it, my mind went blank.

The baseball draft is very different from the NBA or the NFL.

My father, Jimmy Walker, was the first pick in the 1967 draft, but I never met him. He passed in 2007. I found out about him in middle school. I was old enough to understand who he was, where he went to college, and what his game was about. Older players like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have come up to me to talk about him.

If you look at the history of the NBA, guys that came out of high school are the guys that held the NBA together. You look a Kobe Bryant, you look at a LeBron, these are household names.

If I'm able to get drafted by the New York Knicks, it would be a blessing.

Alvin's the coach. We must be the Clippers. And I must be Olowokandi. Nooooo!

I came into the league in '94.

There were great European players that were great basketball players that did not make it in the NBA... This is the best league in the world.

Kobe Bryant has always been my favorite player, and he was drafted No. 13, too, in 1996.