My coach told me, "Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there's always someone out there who's working just a little harder - if you take 150 practice shots, he's taking 200." And that drove me.

The nature of competition is such that any number of people invariably have their eyes on the same prize you do. Recognize your assets and employ them to the best of your ability.

I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.

It makes me sick when I see a guy just stare at a loose ball and watch it go out of bounds.

If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it.

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.