Basketball is a non-aggressive game. So when emotions are high, there's a very low chance to get angry or yell. So that's why it never happens out there.
— Christian Laettner
Any opposing gym we go into, I want them to hate me. At the end of the game, I want to be beating their team so bad that they should hate me.
I bought into everything Coach K preached to us. His whole philosophy.
I was how I was in college because I had to be. I played angry. I played hard. I stepped on guys' chests, I hit a game-winner against UConn.
I enjoy being mysterious. I enjoy the notoriety it brings.
Everyone says I was real cute as a kid, but from 8 to 19, I was horrible-looking, freaky.
Honestly, the Carolina games I played in every year were more intense than the national championship games I played in - they had a better environment.
I'm sure I was insensitive. I'm probably still a jerk at times. But my priority as a freshman was to be good in basketball and play a lot. Not to be the nicest person in the world. I was one-track-minded. I still am.
No one thinks more highly of me than probably myself. I think that's fine.
I don't think it's a good M.O. to disrespect your opponents, and maybe that's why the teams that disrespected me and my team lost to us.
If you are not a Dukie, and Duke is having a lot of success year after year, you might get tired of it. They might not like your competing personality or competing persona, and if you are not a Dukie, or you don't love Duke or Christian Laettner, then I can understand the hating on me.
When you're being interviewed every day, and you're tired, you can make mistakes and say the wrong things, especially when you're young. When you're young, you don't realize everything, and you're a little naive.
You can only be that confident if you know you've done the work.
I don't believe many teams can do it just with one really, really good player. You have to be surrounded with a good cast.
It's hard to live up to the expectations. Besides that, I think I had a very good NBA career, and I'm proud of it. I might not have been an absolute monster, but I thought I did pretty good.
I've been on teams in the NBA where we don't play the right way.
When you're the king of someplace, you don't voluntarily leave.
People say I'm selfish. There might be some truth to that.
If you're not a Duke fan, you're not going to like me.
My whole freshman year at Duke, it was drilled into me that nothing was given to you, and you have to earn it, and this is a dog-eat-dog world, and blah blah blah, and blah blah blah. And you buy into it, 100 percent. You end up loving it. That's the way it should be, right?
Basketball is more than just strength and power.
I like Minnesota. I'd be very happy playing there.
I don't think the world hated Duke basketball before me.
When I was 15 years old, the Duke-UNC game looked like the funnest game in the world to be a part of. So I chose to make sure I was a part of it for four years, and when I was at Duke, it exceeded all my expectations.
Being a physical specimen doesn't mean you're any good at playing inside. Positioning, using your head, the mental stuff - that's my game. That's what makes a good inside player.
I made three visits during my senior year of high school to Duke, UNC, and Virginia. If I hadn't gone to Duke, I would have went to Carolina, just like a lot of Carolina players who, had they not gone there, would have went to Duke.
I always played my best when I respected my opponent and was a little scared of them because they could beat me. Every game I played in college, that was the case.
This is something people don't realize about me, but I can laugh - and laugh at myself.
I'm different now than I was when I was 20 years old.
I realize everyone has the image and perception that I was the worst person.
I really looked forward to the opportunity to play for the Timberwolves. I went up there and gave it my all. I fell in love with the city and the people up there, even to the extreme where I met my wife up there.
There's gotta be a villain; there's gotta be a good guy.
I can't say I go through life liking it and that I pursue to be hated, but I did pursue to be a good basketball player.
I went to Duke, and I stayed at Duke all four years because I wanted as many years under Coach K's tutelage as I could get. I think every year you get with him, the more it's going help you for basketball and life. So I wanted to play for him as long as I could.
I got a beautiful wife and beautiful, healthy children, and that's really all you can ask for.
I'm versatile in every part of my game - except being nice, which I am only at home.
My senior year was crazy. We were defending champions, we were on national TV just about every weekend, and we were winning. Teams always brought their best when they went up against us, and we always matched it.
Shaq is such a load. He's so big and strong, but it's possible to play well against him.
I'd love to do movies.
When you're at home for Duke-Carolina, you have a crowd of close to 10,000 around you, loving you. That's awesome. But it's also a lot of fun in Chapel Hill, where it's you, your teammates and your coaches, and no one else. I enjoyed the games at Chapel Hill a little more because of that.
My problem is being brutally honest. People don't like that.
It amuses me that just because I'm white and always looked skinny, I'm supposed to be unphysical, soft, not tough.
For my entire Duke career, people were gunning for us and hating us and wanting us to lose, so I got used to that right away. Every team is going to give you their best shot. Everyone wants to beat you.
How many people get to say a '30 for 30' is being made about them?
People mature. They learn. They get better at things. You're different when you're 45 than when you're 25.
My biggest regret in life - well, one of them - is that I wasn't muskie fishing from '92 to '96 when I was not married.
I used to tell my mother, 'Mom, when they write really flattering things about your son, don't believe it all. And when they write really negative things about your son, don't believe it all.'
I don't watch any NBA games today, because it makes me sad: I want to be back out there.
Anytime the premiere sports channel calls you and says they want to do a movie about you, you're going to say, 'Yes.'
I pursued to have my team win as much as we could.
