Larry Johnson was fun to watch.
— Christian Laettner
I root for John Calipari.
All I wanted to do was win. People have to remember that when I came to Duke, they'd started to get a reputation that they can't win the big game. We were aware of that, and we hated it.
As a thrill in my career, the Olympics rank right up there with my two NCAA championships at Duke.
The only thing I can control is winning on the basketball court.
I want to see kids go to college more.
You earn playing time on the practice floor.
The Olympics in '92, I didn't contribute that much. I had more to do with winning the National Championships than I did the gold medal.
A layup or two early will help your confidence.
I know I used to play basketball every day, whether it was for fun with my older brother or if it was organized basketball on teams.
I don't need you to love me. I don't want you to hate me, but just don't judge a book by its cover.
I think if you are a player going to Duke, you have to expect a little bit to be not liked when you go and play in opposing team's gyms. Like, when I signed with Duke out of high school, I knew it would be playing in hell where they hate you. That's what I loved about it.
I think every basketball player I know loves ping pong. Everyone played in on the Dream Team. I played Clyde Drexler and Chris Mullin and even David Stern once. David Stern saw I was pretty good.
I'm very close with Brian Davis, Thomas Hill, and Marty Clark.
I've got a beautiful wife and a beautiful family.
I did pursue to be a good basketball player.
You pay attention to detail. You try to win every time. You play tough. And when you play the right way and be accountable to each other, you're going to have success and enjoy the game that much more.
My freshman year, the hate was all directed toward Danny Ferry. And every year, there's some new poor sucker at Duke who draws the ire of everybody.
I'm not gonna say I'm the greatest guy, but the reason I don't hate is I know what it feels like to be hated. So I always pull for Tom Brady.
It's not good to be a hater.
At Duke, the coaches would cover up for you. But with the Wolves, something happen,s and it's in the papers, and I'm blamed. Things are run differently here - the wrong way, if you ask me. One man wants to blame another.
You cannot just allow your team to stink.
I was unique and still am unique.
My second choice would've been Carolina. And when I told my mother I was going to Duke and not Carolina, she just cried, and that made my decision process a little harder. But I still went with what felt right, and it ended up working out well for me.
When I'm older and my children have grown up, I would like to coach in the NBA.
Well, my last year was 04-05 with the Heat, and I relaxed for a few years, and I said, 'Well, what am I going to do?' I've got to do my passion, and my passion is basketball.
I loved my time in Minnesota. I loved it so much that I lived up there until 1999.
People don't know how awesome Minnesota is... I love it up here. And when I was playing up here, I loved every second of it, even if it was minus 20 degrees.
You can't do something stupid at any time. If you do, you're going to get technicals or flagrant fouls, or you're going to get kicked out of the game or whatever.
I played some ping pong with the guys on the T'Wolves team. I might have been the champ on that team, too. But ping pong is a big part of my life. I grew up playing it against my brother and my father when I was young. They used to kick my behind for a long time, so I got very good at it.
For me, personally, on the inside, the best moment was winning my first championship.
Every basketball thing I do now through my academy is always in a muskie state so I can work both those passions at the same time.
When I went to work with Garinger, they were good kids and a very good team. But they had a nine-game losing streak, and you can see that they were getting down and depressed and not feeling rewards for their efforts. But when I came in there, I didn't need to teach them much about X's and O's.
Given the way Duke plays its offense and defense, in high school I was very interested in playing for Coach K. Then when you get there and see how good he is, you buy into it a hundred percent. He has a recipe for how to be successful on the court.
I always pull for the best of the best.
You can't cry yourself to sleep every night because people from a distance hate you. So you gotta do with it what you can, and if that means using it as motivation, then that's what you do.
Part of me would like for not all the Kentucky, Carolina, and Connecticut fans to despise me, but another part of me realizes that's not important.
People can think what they want about me.
Sometimes you've just got to will it into the hoop.
I'm up in Minneapolis all the time. I love being up there.
If you want the whole college basketball experience, you have to go to a game at Cameroon Indoor!
I had an older brother that would beat me in everything, and then he would rub my nose in it, and that made me work even harder.
It's very important to know how to dribble and pass and catch and cut at a very high level if you want to be a good basketball player.
It's easier to work hard when you're passionate about what you're doing.
I love muskie fishing in the summer time.
For whatever reason, the people that don't appreciate Duke basketball or don't pull for Duke basketball, they have a tendency to vilify one of the players. And a lot of times, it might be a white guy. And has it happened over and over in the past? Yes.
I always believed him. If Coach K said the sky will be purple when you get outside, I would have believed him.
I'm a little embarrassed to say I'm a little bit of a soccer dad.
I pursued to have my team win as much as we could, and it doesn't happen without great teammates.
Every Olympics, when I was growing up and playing basketball, my parents and I made it a point to sit down and watch the U.S.A. compete. To join that team later, and play and practice one-on-one with David Robinson, Larry Bird, Chris Mullens and all these guys I looked up to, was a dream come true.
