C. J. McCollum

“When you have an almost seven-foot wingspan and can guard multiple positions, you're going to get minutes.”

“It's been a part of my game for life. It's tougher to finish in the lane so you've got to find different areas to score efficiently and the mid-range contested shot is a shot a lot of teams will live with. And it's a shot I'm willing to live with as well just because I've gotten so many shots at it and I'm comfortable with it.”

“My parents have done a tremendous job, over the course of my career. They try to make every game and I think my rookie year, my mom made every game... They've been really consistent and it's all you can ask for as a kid.”

“As players we're held accountable for poor performance, I think the same should be said for journalists.”

“Harden throws his body around a lot and is a master at drawing fouls. It could be considered borderline flopping sometimes, but he's a vet who knows how to get to the line.”

“People think because there's only 24 hours in a day, we're just supposed to play our sport and then go home and think some more about our sport. They don't think that we should care about other things, but the reality is that you can be really good at what you do for a living and have other hobbies.”

“I graduated from Lehigh with a degree in journalism.”

“I don't care how much you traveled in college, and I don't care what kind of shape you're in. Travel is the one thing you're absolutely not prepared for as a rookie.”

“I've said it before and I'll say it again: Portland basketball fans are the best basketball fans in the world.”

“It's mentally draining to be on 100% of the time on both ends of the floor, especially when you're the team's undisputed shot creator.”

“I'm not just a dumb basketball player who got lucky and graduated from college. My ratio for professor to student was nine-to-one so it wasn't like I wasn't going to class. I was going to class every day.”

“For me, understanding your heritage and wanting to leave a legacy was always important to me.”

“I take a lot of pride in being flexible, preserving my body. After a workout, I ice both feet, my calves, knees and stretch.”

“I like to take it back, cause I'm an old soul. Growing up, my brothers, I'd grow up hearing what they were playing, and that's how my taste has evolved.”

“My mother, my father, my brother, they've done a tremendous job of preparing me and helping me get right in having confidence.”

“One of the advantages of going to a small school is that you're expected to be the man. They have to give you the ball, and there's more room for error in a situation where you can play your way through mistakes (and no matter how good you are, this is a valuable coping skill at the NBA level).”

“Other people need to be forward thinkers. Not just basketball players. Not just people in the sports world. But people in general.”

“Writing and speaking and communicating, it's something important to me, and something I want to get better at.”

“Kyrie is the ultimate versatility weapon. He's good in isos, he's good in pick-and-rolls, he's good in transition. He got game.”

“Nothing really comes easy to you when you're under-recruited, you're undersized, you're undervalued. It's a situation where you have to be better than the bigger guys.”