When I got to Central Arkansas, I was a small, slim guy with little chance of playing in the NBA. Then, I went through a two-year growth spurt, and suddenly, I was 6-foot-7.

The odds were against me when I arrived at Central Arkansas. I was barely 6-foot-2 and didn't have a scholarship. But I always felt I could make it to the NBA; it was as if I had foreseen my future, and I knew I would make it.

I want to thank the NBA and U.S.A. Basketball. Words can't describe my feeling. I was a small town kid from Hamburg, Arkansas, and you provided me a platform to live out my passion, the game of basketball, on the world's grandest stage.

It takes locking in on the task at hand and honing in on what you need to do in order to be successful in the NBA postseason.

If I had an opportunity to hand-pick a team that I wanted to play in the NBA Finals, it would probably be the Lakers.

When I look back at my first few seasons in the NBA, we didn't dominate as a team. There were a lot of nights where we took a beating and got whacked across the head. But we got better along the way, and we started to taste the success. With that came the pressure and expectations to be successful.