I've been double-teamed my whole life. I know when a double team's coming. I know what side the guy's coming from. I know how to dribble out of it.
— Deandre Ayton
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.
I wouldn't say I'm the best player. On the competitive level, I am the best competitor. I don't think there's anybody like me. I play my heart out on both ends of the floor, and I give my all.
Nike is Nike. Adidas is Adidas. I've played in their circuits and stuff like that, but now it's a business. You don't want just product. You're not a kid anymore. You're really trying to get bank. That's about it.
I will dive on the floor for a loose ball. That's how I'm trained. I can guard a guard if I want to. That's just that price. I'm not gonna sit here and let you score on me. That's in my blood.
My head was - I wasn't screwed up, but I feel like I was shifted away from my family a lot with this basketball stuff. You have people coming around you saying they are family or whatever. They try to keep you away from your real family. That kind of got me.
I wasn't really a student of the game. I just played it because I loved it. I didn't really look into the greats as much. They just put a ball in my hand, and I did what the coach told me to.
I play basketball. I play center, and if you haven't watched me play, I'm not a regular big man. I can move my feet. Not saying I can stop anyone out there who's in front of me, but trust me: I can really be a problem on the perimeter guarding somebody.
When you think you're showing effort, and your body language is showing that, then you're really playing your best, and then nobody will be able to talk bad about your game.
Dudes are coming at me every day; I'm playing different positions on the defensive end. I'm really working on that, because that's the next level. In the league, everybody can dribble.
I didn't want to go out there and prove to everyone or try to prove people wrong or what I can do. I just wanted to play my best, and, if I'm gassing at the end of the game, then that means I did a good job.
When I was in high school, I was thinking about getting ideas and making my first shoe, how it would be, and what brand it would be.
Puma was the best deal. To me, anybody can make your shoe. Anybody can make the best shoe for you and put the right fit in the shoe.
To me, I don't even think I had a childhood. From when I was a baby to 12 years old, yes. But as soon as I left the Bahamas, that stuff was over. It was just straight business. I'm on a mission. That's how it's always been.
Everybody was pressuring me to play basketball, so I was like, 'OK, I'll do it.'
Demarcus Cousins, he can move. With his size, he can really use his size on the perimeter against anybody. That's what I want to do when I get to the league.
No one's built like me. I play 110% on both ends of the floor.
I've been saying it before the lottery, before the Phoenix Suns even had the No. 1 pick. I've just been talking it into the existence. I'm not saying I'm the best player in the draft and trying to be cocky like that, but I was just saying I'm going to be the No. 1 pick, regardless.
I used to get butterflies when I'd see big dudes. I don't get butterflies no more.
When I was younger, I watched Spiderman, and they had the Green Goblin, and before the Green Goblin died, he told Spiderman that it wasn't him, it was the Green Goblin that was killing all those people. I thought, 'Hmm, I should try to change my personality sometimes when it comes to interviews.'
I was the kid in basketball camps wanting to see the new gear that comes out or the gear that the camps give.
I'm an entertainer. Puma knows entertainers and the way we move.
When I started playing basketball, they always would have me at the block, and I'm like, 'Yo, I don't want to play down here. I want to do something else.' This is not entertaining to me, and whatever the guards do, I wanted to do.
I still have my back to the basket because there's going to be times where I'm going to really have to score down low, but I'm really working on my face-up game because in the league, there's more space, and there's not double-teams and triple-teams coming at you like how it was in college.
I'm representing the Bahamas; I'm representing a lot of islands - it's a whole nation behind me, on my back.
I grew up wearing PUMA, and our national team is sponsored by PUMA, so those were always in the store. We couldn't afford Nike or Jordan, so PUMA was our brand. If you were wearing PUMA, that's dope.
When you're from the islands, that's that pride.
