John Collins

“I hate missing dunks.”

“At my size and height you have to be able to do everything.”

“You sort of have that meditation, that happy place I go to in my brain. The happy place may be an island or something where I'm on the beach. Something like that where I can sort of at least try to escape and try to just release my mind into that place that I want to be in, into my relaxing place.”

“I always end up saying, whether it being my rookie year, not playing as many games as I should have with the new coaching and whatnot, and then my injury and my suspension, I feel like every year, it's always been something, you know what I mean?”

“I think I've always had the ability to shoot.”

“I got to have that S on my chest. Superman.”

“My ability to play off the pick-and-roll, open plays for other guys and use my athletic body to catch lobs, that's what I do every night.”

“'The Secret' is sorta teaching me how to think positively, try to take the negative thoughts out of of my brain.”

“I like watching anime or music videos and stuff like that, just to get my mind somewhere else, to make it feel like I'm not in the arena, not in the gym, so when I step on the court, I'm locked in.”

“My mom is my backbone.”

“I feel like every NBA player puts their life into this game, and for it to be cut short - it hurts, especially when you have so much unfinished business that you feel like you needed to handle.”

“Size is just something you can't teach, you know what I mean? I can't be bigger than Joel Embiid or Steven Adams or Aron Baynes. It's almost near impossible.”

“Everyone has a niche of dunks that they are experts at.”

“I've worked on my shot a lot, had a lot of time to think about it and I'm sort of settling into it.”

“Happy to be a Hawk. Shows a lot of promise that the organization is willing to take the time to pick me.”

“I've always had good hands, but my reaction time is something goaltending helped me with, being able to track the ball at such a fast speed.”

“Obviously, I can always get better on defense, improve intensity, my willingness to be locked in and stay in a stance, all that stuff is great, but I feel like playmaking, for myself, not only to create shots for myself but to create shots for others, benefits everybody.”

“My biggest strength is my versatility.”

“I'm a huge dunker.”

“I have a very blessed life. I want to be clear about that.”