Larry beat him up too much. He tore the kid's confidence apart too much, and it was tough for him to recover,

Larry is great and made a difference on our team, ... But I think we were great before he got here. We may have made the Finals the year before Larry got here, but I was injured. He came into a good situation and he made us better. It is going to be our chance to show we have a great team.

We don't just hop out of bed, scratch our eyes, and become an NBA baller. It's a process. It's a tough grind that you have to go through that people don't understand.

I'm just mad I missed those two free throws. We had a letdown against Cleveland, and we needed to turn that around. We couldn't let it continue.

I persevered, sustained, and continued to work hard and finally got my opportunity in Detroit, and I never turned back from that point. That's what made it so sweet to me to win a championship after what I went through. I had to scrap and fight to get through it, and to reach the pinnacle made it even sweeter.

Quite frankly, Minnesota was where my career kind of turned around, and it all had to do with Flip Saunders and his coaching prowess and his system.