I'm obviously not going to give you everything about my whole life, but as far as my personality, you see me all the time from watching the games.

We live in a world of what have you done for me lately. We don't remember the day before sometimes. Think back five, six, years ago what he was doing. It's unheard of.

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.

This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country. I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience. After going through training camp with USAB, I realized I could not fulfill my responsibilities to the team from both a time and energy standpoint. I need to take a step back and take some time away, both mentally and physically in order to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. I will be rooting for USAB and look forward to future opportunities with them.

For me, as a 14-year-old aspiring to be in the NBA, I wanted to hear from players.

I just loved being in the gym. It was tough at times. Sometimes I wanted to quit, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Mr. Bennett, for just giving me this opportunity. I thank you for always being there for me when I need you. Every time I see you under the basket for a game, I feel confident. No matter how the game is going, I look at you - I say, if our owner's behind us, we can do it all. I thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.