It's not to hurt anyone, but basketball can be rough.

It's funny, 'cause it seems like just yesterday that I was the youngest player just starting out. But now there are young players all over the league, and they'll ask me questions about playing overseas or finding an agent.

Players should know that if you can't make the contribution of the winning shot, that your attitude every day when you come to practice, or the positive contribution you make through cheering and keeping up team morale, is just as important in the overall picture.

When I come off the bench, I'm looking to add energy, and then I play defense and rebound. Also, at the end of the game, I have the experience to go out there and help us win.

As far as starting or not starting, that means more to some players than others. And if it means more to someone else, I think you should let them start and just go out there and do your job when it's your turn.

I try to never lose sight of what a special time it is to be a women's basketball player.

It's not to hurt anyone, but basketball can be rough.

Sometimes people think that if you're always helping people up and never hit someone with a hard foul, you're automatically a good sport. I don't believe that.

I was very pleased that the positive things about me and my game outshone the aggressive style of play I use. I would never tone that down, because I believe in that style of play, and I believe that you can play rough on the court and still be a good sport.

For me, the money isn't a big issue. I'm at the end of my career and I'm just happy to play.

In preseason camp, there are no friends. when newcomers arrive trying to take not only your job, but maybe your best friend's job, you work together to try to help each other. Everyone is an outsider until you're given a uniform.

Once you know what to expect, it gets easier and easier. And now I know what I have to do to prepare for each season and what to expect through each season.

Every year I try to keep in excellent shape and improve some part of my game. I play in the offseason overseas to keep my game tuned up and hopefully improve a little in some area.

When I went to college, we had a very good local following, but stations only televised two or three NCAA games a season. And when I went to Europe, once in a while we had a good crowd, but usually not.

Rookies are also coming in from college programs as big stars, whereas when we came in, we were just happy to be there. We were happy to be playing in a big gym, to be on television, to be playing in America.

I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as a good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100 percent.

When I see these young girls who are dreaming the dream that I'm living, it's very very exciting and it puts a big smile on my face.

To be on television and have my nieces and nephews see me, and seeing them wear my shirt to the games and be proud, it's so sweet. Sometimes it feels like it's just a dream.

You have to demand things and believe you're worth more. And once you do demand them, you're usually going to get them. The players who first came in were very humble because we came from obscurity. Today's players, on the other hand, have a sense of entitlement.

I was surprised I won the award because I've always been a very aggressive player and I earn my share of fouls on the court. I play rough, and because I'm an older player, of course I use tricks on the younger players.

For me, being a starter doesn't matter. Of course, I'd like to be in at the end of the game, to be a big part of the team, and to play as many minutes as I can play. But starting and coming off the bench are two different challenges.

You shouldn't just work on your jump shot. You should work on being a better person, a better teammate, and a better friend.

There's a lot of room to grow, and the women who believe they're worth it are the ones who are going to make good things happen during the next period of WNBA growth.

There's lots of charity stuff that I can do. There are actually a million things to do here, but it would be very hard for me to stop going overseas, because I've been doing that for longer than I've been playing in the WNBA.

I even believe if you're killing a team, you shouldn't stop. You should respect your opponents enough to play 100 percent the whole time. And by the same token, if you're getting killed by the other team, you should never quit.

Being from New York, if you're gay, you're gay. I think it's important that if you are gay, you not be afraid to say who you are.

You shouldnt just work on your jump shot. You should work on being a better person a better teammate and a better friend.

Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.

I've done a lot of basketball drills, not a whole lot of competitive stuff. I have basically been in the gym everyday working on my game, working on the time off that I've had from the game, just getting myself prepared mentally and physically for the season.

Basketball is in my blood. It is my obligation to try.

As I've said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been involved in it: coaches, administrators - not recently - fans and nobody, nobody any more so than students over the years.

It's very warm there, so we were outdoors all the time. The local people had programs for us year-round, where as kids we had the opportunity to play football, basketball, baseball, track and field - we just went from one sport to the next, year-round.

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.

My father was a soccer player. All my friends played basketball though, so I stuck with basketball.

Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else.

I think we have our sports within our own culture that are huge with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Those are the sports in America that we grow up with and soccer isn't really there yet.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Both of us played basketball, and I played tennis and my knees are done. Now if you ask us head-to-head who wins at golf, I'm asking for a couple of strokes.

In the original script, my character was a basketball player rather than a boxer. I didn't think I could pull that off. I'm a little short to be a basketball player!

I like basketball, and I've been to three games, which is so much more fun than seeing it on TV, I think.

As all of us with any involvement in sports knows, no two umpires or no two referees have the same strike zone or call the same kind of a basketball game.

I wanted a NBA basketball gym at my house and that's what I worked hard for and I was able to achieve that.

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

I just want to try to ignore the scrutiny and all the distractions and just play hard basketball and let the best come... Improving game by game and trying to improve my game is what I want to do.

A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you're going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.

Handball, swimming, running, jumping, basketball, and boxing were as much a part of me as breathing.

I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.

Since I left basketball, and my wife, it's been a glorious feast of lovemaking.