I try not to worry about nothing I can't control. I can't control rumors.
C. J. McCollum
I got hurt my senior year of college. I ended up breaking my fifth metatarsal after I pulled out of the Draft. That was a good experience for me to kind of find myself, figure out a plan for post-basketball because obviously it doesn't last forever.
One thing I love about guards in this league is that you can be a 5-foot-9 pit bull or a methodical 6-foot-7 jump-shooter, and still succeed in your own way.
I've been a guy who's never really been satisfied. Work hard, try to figure out ways to improve, try to figure out ways to sustain a certain level of play.
I always say, it's not the shoes; it's the player. If you can hoop, you can hoop.
Other people need to be forward thinkers. Not just basketball players. Not just people in the sports world. But people in general.
Being able to go to someone's house and have dinner with them and their family, being able to go see a movie with them, or go shopping, it makes you really care for someone and hope that they succeed. That means a lot in an on-court relationship. It creates trust.
I had a few brief, brief interactions with Coach K. Mainly us beating them in the NCAA Tournament back in 2012.
I'm just trying to diversify my portfolio and put myself in a position so when I do retire, the options are limitless.
At the combine we went through medical exams from every team, the most extensive physicals I've ever had: blood tests, MRIs, heart monitors, everything. Because of my injury teams really paid attention to my lower body.
You gotta really enjoy off days.
Like, if I'm assessing someone's game and they can't shoot, they can't shoot. And they know they can't shoot. It's not like I'm making fun of them. I just keep it real, man.
It's been a tough 2020, honestly, for me personally, for a lot of people in the world in general.
As a competitor, you always want to receive the best rewards. But you understand that it is a team sport, and you understand the better your team plays, the more you are rewarded.
Yea, I wrote my college thesis on why college athletes should get paid. I think there's a way to do it based on the amount of revenue they generate.
For me personally, I like a smooth pinot noir with a lot of cherry fruit flavor. In the proper mood, I like a little earth and a little spice as well.
I think sometimes there's this perception that players are supposed to be robots.
If I could go back in time and give Rookie C.J one piece of wisdom, it would be that sometimes less is more. Off the court, sometimes it's just better to shut up and be quiet.
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.
Over the course of my life, there have been so many people who have invested in me and provided me with opportunities to grow.
I ended up breaking a bone in my foot early in my rookie season, and honestly, it was kind of a blessing. I had so much free time while being laid up that I put a lot of time in on film to understand the game from a different vantage point.
When you're smaller, you kind of learn how to do other things. You have to work a little bit harder.
You have to learn how to win in this league. It's a process.
It's nice to say you have goals and that you want to win championships. But until you get thrown into the fire, you can't truly grasp what it takes to accomplish those goals.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Portland basketball fans are the best basketball fans in the world.
Other fans might stop coming to games when their teams fall in the standings. Blazers fans just pack the house even more.
Life in the NBA can be one big constant distraction, especially when you're on the road. You're always moving from one place to the next, always on the phone, checking texts, social media, all of that stuff. It takes you out of yourself.
We don't have those bougie, not-into-it, wouldn't-be-caught-dead-in-the-free-t-shirt hoops fans in Portland. We've got those pinwheel-tattooed, bleeding-red-and-black, still-rocking-that-Walton-jersey, ride-or-die, realer-than-real hoops fans in Portland. The love is real. The support is real.
Other fans get antsy when their team's offense struggles to score for a few possessions. Blazers fans give us standing ovations, like they're trying to will their energy into us.
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.
When games get tight in the playoffs, especially in the Finals, there's no space. There's no clean looks.
When I think about defending Kyrie, I think about respect. His shooting percentages were close to 50/40/90 as a 19-year-old rookie. When you come into this league with numbers like that, defenders have to respect your jumper.
I think, in moderation, taunting is a part of life.
I like watches.
Growing up I was a Cleveland Browns fan and my mood would change based on how they were playing. If they were losing I wasn't as happy, I wasn't as excited, I was a little sad.
I'm a fan of Stance socks.
When you have an almost seven-foot wingspan and can guard multiple positions, you're going to get minutes.
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).
In college, the line is so close that you can kind of half-heartedly shoot the ball off-balance and fading away. To shoot an NBA three, because the arc of your shot has to be a little higher, you have to be squared up and get your legs into it more, which can be tough in the fourth quarter.
Everything in the NBA is sped up. Lanes close much faster than college.
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.
A lot of people have compared being an NBA rookie to being a fraternity pledge. It's not really intense like that. It's more like being an intern.
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.
Draymond Green is one of the best in the league at grabbing a defensive rebound and starting the break.
Lowry is a pitbull. He's a gritty player who scores in a variety of ways, but he's also one of the few guards who also does the things that go unnoticed on the stat sheet.
Offensively, Lowry is a great catch-and-shoot player from deep, and he's very comfortable shooting the trey off the bounce in isolations and pick-and-roll.
You want to see range? Dame has range.
The intensity and importance of each possession. That's the thing about the NBA that doesn't always translate to television.
When you're watching from the bench, you can pick up on everything - where guys like to shoot the ball from, how teams defend the pick-and-roll, which big men are good at hedging the screen and so on.
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.
