I was a piano player before I was a poet.
I want to be a role-model player, someone respected and looked up to.
The style I have in judo is very unique... One big advantage a judo player has is they have very good posture and - like, wrestlers, they show when they're about to do a take-down... which judo players don't, and so I kind of incorporate the boxing style with a judo grip and finishing that way.
I had never dreamed about the NBA like some guys did. I was a non-scholarship player at an NAIA college. I played on the Boys and Girls Club team in my freshman and sophomore years of high school before I made the high school team. I was our backup center in college.
If I change in any way, I'm not going to be the same player.
As a piano player, if 10 is concert level, I'd put myself at a 5 or a 6, but in a completely different genre than classical or opera. In terms of classical and opera, playing accompaniment, I'd say I was a 3.
I think I'm a really tough player.
I thought I was a pretty decent soccer player. I'm not.
I don't think, as a player, I have a weakness on the field. I've done a great job of becoming good at everything, so I think that's what separates me.
I learned early in sports that to be effective - for a player to play the best he can play - is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.
Growing up, I actually wanted to be a professional baseball player instead of a radio DJ. Believe it or not.
If chronic bashing of the head could destroy a boxer's brain, couldn't it also destroy a football player's brain? Surely someone in the history of football had thought to look for dementia pugilistica. Unlike boxers, football players wear helmets, but a helmet can't fully protect the head from damaging impact.
It is not about money. It is about how you treat the player.
When you're in between the white lines, the game face is on. I was only focused on the task at hand - out, safe, ball, strike - leaving little time to think about how special a player, moment or game happened to be.
I've been the best player on every team that I played on, so if I can't be the poster child of your team, then what else is it? It's got to be a black-white issue. Every white player I know who's the best player on their team is the poster child of that team.
There are many guys out there who look like me - you know, brunettes with long hair. There are thousands. But I think the difference is that I am a real polo player, who does endorsements for Ralph Lauren on the side, and I've always looked at it that way.
When I was a minor league player, my goal was to be a major leaguer. It's no different as a minor league manager.
When you are a player, a footballer, or a manager of a great club like Chelsea, you must play to win. To win. To win the title. Or to fight and, at the end, to compete with the other teams to win the title and reach your targets.
That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.
The thing a player has to ask himself: 'Do you want to choose winning over standing out?' Dwyane Wade made that choice, and I don't think he gets enough credit.
I think any player at any position their rookie year, they're trying to figure out how to process all the information we give them, how to process what the defense is doing and then actually physically play the game and the position that they're playing.
I always wished I had a chance to meet an NFL player or even a college player when I was growing up in Los Angeles.
I'd rather be a good person off the field than a good baseball player on the field.
As a former NFL player, I am one American who will have nothing to do with any NFL Team that cannot find the corporate courage to stand for the millions of courageous past great Americans whose sacrifice gave meaning to our flag and national anthem and to the millions upon millions who still dream to come to its free shores.
I've always been the DJ or the bass player or the drummer, somebody in the background. I don't think anybody who knows me personally would say that I'm particularly shy or introverted, but I'm definitely not like Mr. Attention.
I'm not a super blues player, but I was exposed to the Texas blues sound while I was growing up, and that definitely rubbed off on me.
Duane Allman was the best guitar player I ever heard who didn't read a note.
From the time I was 3, I wanted to be a major-league player. To accomplish that at 35, get my name on my jersey, be in the clubhouse with major-league players, see my family for the first time in three months, be in my home state and pitch the day I got called up, was incredible.
I'm a natural piano player. So all the practicing I do at this point is in my head. If I don't play for a year, my chops aren't going to get any worse. I've spent my time playing scales, and I don't necessarily want to play any faster than I play. So everything I do at this point is more philosophical.
I'm a team player. But I will say that I've never been a 'yes man' in my life.
I think I know now, each team is different, each player is different. I don't believe everybody has got to be the same.
I think the past is not important. For every player, for every single player, the past stay there. If you did well in the past, OK.
I'm not the first player to have their home Grand Slam and not perform. There have been a few Australians and French players, you name it. It's a tough thing. But it is one of those things. Would I rather have a Grand Slam in my country than not? I would.
My brother Carl taught me how to play bass. I'm a self-taught keyboard player, though - I figured out our harmonies at the piano.
Best player I ever played against? I mean, I played against many, many good players, so I don't know who to keep. I would say Ronaldo the Fenomeno.
Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player.