Ethan J. Pickett

Lamar Jackson says he watched friends chase fast money while he was playing the long game and counting how many years it would take him to reach the NFL “I’m seeing my friends who I was growing up with who I was playing football with… Just throw their life away for fast money and stuff like that. They used to tell me ‘Oh, you talk too much’. Because I used to always speak about football and positivity stuff. They didn’t want to hear that.” “Now it’s like… They’d rather hear it now because I’m Lamar Jackson. But I’ve been speaking about it. Everybody just wasn’t listening. I was already seeing what was going on. I wish we could go back in time and y’all could see what I was seeing. Because I always looked at life like, I counted years.” “Like I would think… ‘How many years does it take to get to the league?’ They’re saying… ‘You do three years in college.’ I said… ‘I’m doing three years.’ I’m not doing four. I’m not trying to go fifth year. I’m doing three years because I’m going to make sure my family is good.” “If you’re coming from a place like where I come from, don’t try to be like the guys around you. Don’t look up to the stuff that looks like it’s fun… Because sometimes it gets you in trouble.” “It’s sacrificing. ‘Man, I can’t have fun right now. I’ve got to get my family right. I can’t do this right now. I can’t mess up.’ Forget the fast money. I’ve got to think about longevity.” “You can get locked up and do five years for $1,000. That money gone. It’s gone. You’re like… ‘Man, I just did that for $1,000…’ And I could have waited five years and I would’ve had $10 million.” “That’s why I’m where I’m at right now. That’s how I used to think. My mom working… She’s busting her behind. It’s me, my brother and my two sisters at home. I’m the oldest…” “So I’ve got to make sure everybody right. And it’s like… Man, I can’t wait, but I’ve got to wait. That’s the sacrifice. I’ve got to be patient. People don’t look at it like that. It’s like… ‘Man, I need that money right now.’ But you don’t need that money right now. Just wait.”

DeMar DeRozan explains how Gregg Popovich treated basketball as almost the least important part of coaching “There used to be days… We’d come in there thinking we had practice… But Coach Pop would show us Something going on in a third-world country… With 13-year-old kids being trained… To be killers with AK-47s.” “He would say, we get to come here… and shoot a basketball… Make millions of dollars… Take care of your kids.” “He used to do a lot of things… To put stuff in perspective all the time. That’s genuinely who he was… At all times.” “It was always basketball last. You as a man first. Family, everything else before basketball.” “He would tell us, this basketball stuff ain’t nothing. F— wins and losses. F— championships. What’s really important is: How are you doing? How’s your family? How are your kids?”