I don't really want to go into my problems with the team at the time except to say that no one's ever had to pay me to play basketball.

You can't imagine how much good luck is involved in winning, but all of a sudden, you get in a situation where every break goes your way, every call goes your way, every ball that rolls around drops in instead of out. It feels magical.

You can't ever totally know what's inside of someone else, or see the kind of will someone like Magic has. You have to rely on your instincts to find people who hate losing and know how to win.

It was clear to me that I was never going to be the same kind of player I had been. It was time to quit.

As a player all you can do is play within yourself, even in the context of a team sport.

Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don't think you can, you won't.

The trick in writing children's books is to set up danger, mystery and excitement on page one. Force the kid to turn the page . . . Then in the middle of each chapter there's a dramatic point of excitement, and at chapter's end, a cliffhanger.