Shawn Kemp

“I think most young players who take off from the start are usually put in a situation where they are surrounded by good, veteran players.”

“Anytime you're playing with a team that's losing, the main guy is going to take a lot of the heat.”

“There's no second-place winners in this league.”

“Money means a lot of respect. It means a lot of accomplishment and a lot of hard work.”

“I'm afraid that if they bring the Sonics back, what kind of team are they going to put on the court? Are they going to put the effort out? If they bring the team back, are they going to really put a good team out there? Or do we just want any team?”

“We need the Sonics back.”

“I always found it a great challenge playing against Michael Jordan, to play against Magic Johnson, to play against Larry Bird, to play against all those good players because it's something that you can take away from it.”

“Every summer, no matter what happens to me in my life, I'm going to work out every day.”

“You won't see me doing a lot of talking, but you'll see me doing a lot of playing.”

“I have always been able to handle situations well once they've happened to me.”

“I won so many years in Seattle and then to go to Cleveland... I had a pretty nice year the first year I got there and then the last two years, we just weren't able to make it to the playoffs.”

“If you have a goal, you have to step forward and try to get it accomplished.”

“When things don't go right, people are always trying to protect themselves.”

“I've always appreciated basketball. I never tried to disrespect the game.”

“When you lose you try to learn from your mistakes and build on them.”

“You have to challenge yourself and things happen from there.”

“I would never let myself go back there to play another 82-game season in Seattle. I think the team deserves better and the fans deserve better.”

“You've got to go through times in your life when you're not going to make the greatest decisions. But the thing is, I always say, you grade a person on what they've become after they've made some mistakes. Because it's so easy to make mistakes when you're young.”

“I've always enjoyed playing in the summer.”

“When I was younger, I was a guy who always wanted to get to the rim and attack the rim and just dunk the basketball.”