I come from a small county outside of Washington DC called PG County, and me, my mom, my brother, we moved so many different places growing up. And it felt like a box. It felt like there was no getting out.

I love basketball so much, I love playing it. I just never thought I could make it to college, make it to the NBA or stand up here today in front of you guys and be an NBA MVP. It’s just a surreal feeling, and I had so much help, so many people believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

How I grew up, everybody was telling me, "You can't do this, you can't get tattoos, you've got to look a certain way." Now, I'm like, "Why?"

I'm tired of being second.... I'm done with it.

And last, my mom. I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old. Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We went from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I had was when we moved into our first apartment, no bed, no furniture and we just sat in the living room and just hugged each other. We thought we made it.

You hear all these stories about, 'There's one in a million guys that make it to the NBA and stay there.' To see people cheering for me and when they say my name, it's just crazy. It's still crazy to me.

I always want to win because I never want to sit out on the sidelines outside.