But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.
In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.
But I mean, even my family gets spoiled at times watching me doing things that I do, on and off the court.
I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously.
I’m not about saving franchises.
People who say “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” never felt a broken heart.
In this fall – this is very tough – in this fall I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.
Don’t think for one min that I haven’t been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!
I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.
We don’t want to get frustrated because it sticks in your mind too much. We have to work at it and see what we did wrong.
I just want you guys to see it also. To see what type of words that are said toward me, and towards us as professional athletes. Everybody thinks it is a bed of roses and it’s not.
I learn from winning, because it’s much easier to point out things when you lose. But I think the alternate competitors can point out a lot of things when you win.
Certain money is not always good money. It could be just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, if you have your priorities in check then for the most part it’s easy.
My childhood was never great. We moved from place to place a lot. There were times when we had no definite place to stay. So, a basic level of security was not always there. Therefore, when you finally make it out, and you become who I am, you’re humbled by the memories of those situations.
I never thought basketball was going to be my future. I just wanted to play because it gets you girls.
The modern athlete is an individual corporation. I’m not quite sure it’s very good for sport, or good for team work, or those different things that sport says it’s about. This is about business.
Why should I care? I have all the money in the world.
Losing a basketball game hurts but when you see what you’ve been through, you look on it and say well if this is the worst thing that can happen to me, then I’m okay.
My favorite thing about being a father is just seeing my kids grow and do some of the same things that I did when I was a kid, man.
As a parent, if you have multiple kids, you can’t teach them all the same thing because they all have different personalities. They’re their own person.
As a parent you protect your kids as much as possible.