People really don't care, in some ways, that you have a family. With a high profile job like I have, they just want you to win basketball games. You can do that and still keep your family together. I try the best I can to be at the basketball practices or tennis practices or recitals. In my first year at Dallas my (then 11-year old) son Avery Jr., said, "You know daddy, you're still the best coach in the NBA." I was like, "But I haven't won a playoff game yet." And he said, "That's okay. You're still my daddy." That makes you feel good.

I'm passionate about coaching and being able to mentor young men in a lot of different ways. I think it's good to be able to do what you love to do. It's been in me since the beginning. I was telling my college coach what to do and he trusted me. When I got into the NBA, I started having conversations with coaches. Coach Gregg Popp(avich) brought a lot out in me. Coach Don Nelson gave me an incredible opportunity to spend some time with him and he molded me but at the same time allowed me to be myself.

Every era of coaches has their own set of problems and challenges. Today's player is different, but some things about them are better than they were in the past. I don't think coaching today's players is any tougher. I think we're a little too hard on the current day player because he's different.

In 1989 at Greater Saint Steven Full Gospel Church, I gave my life to Christ. That's pretty much where it all started for me. I was 23 years old at the time, right after my first year in the NBA. The pastor preached a message about being fully committed. That pretty much was me. I wasn't fully committed. I was kind of in and out all of the time. So I just wanted to make a commitment.

There are a lot of things that make players really good coaches. Whether you've played in the NBA or not, there are certain things you have to master and be really good at. They just have to be gifted in these areas. You've got to be competent. Secondly, you've got to be able to communicate. You can have a picture in your mind on how to score but if you can't communicate it, if you can't teach it, what good is it? You've got to be brutally honest and be a man of strong character and then you've got to have class. They've got to respect you.

Growing up in New Orleans, my mom and dad were churchgoers. I would go to church with them. Also, I was going to a Catholic school so I had a fascination with the Catholic Church mainly because, in my mind, (their services) didn't take as long. I was bouncing in between my mom's Baptist church, which was called Second Zion Baptist, and going to a Catholic Church.

Being born is easy. So is taking your last breath. Everything in between, that's the hard part. Life is in between, and it will offer challenges and opportunities beyond measure.