I think the biggest thing I want to learn from Kevin Garnett, with him having a ring, is how do I become a championship player? How do I see how a championship team looks like? How do I use myself to be a championship contributor?
All of the teams in this league that have won multiple championships, they didn't come out the gate winning. Sometimes you have to take those hits to understand what it takes to win.
After I left the Nets, I found out what it takes to not just make the Finals, but to win a championship. I think I have a sense now of how you build a championship structure and how you maintain that structure.
It never bothered me when people would say, 'You only win championships because you're playing with Shaq.' It bothered me when he said it.
My whole thing when I got in the NBA was I want to win a championship. The mindset hasn't changed.
This is the Boston Celtics. This isn't the Phoenix Suns. No disrespect to any other organization, but you don't hang conference titles. Do we hang going to the conference finals?
You're measured by championships no matter what.
A LeBron James team is never desperate.
When you take over at Kansas, they've always won, so you're expected to win.
At Real Madrid, I learned a will to win.
I want to develop a championship culture that's filled with high-character people that are dedicated to becoming the best versions of themselves.
I remember embracing our championship tradition, telling our players that this is what we should expect to be; this is what Oklahoma is supposed to be. And we're going to do all we can to be that. And if we don't, there will be no excuses. You either do or you don't.
We have to get better at that. All of the Stanley Cup winning teams throughout the past few seasons, when they needed to play defense, they did it. If you can play defense, that's when you know it's game over.
If you are going to be successful, there is no point in having three or four top individual players, because those players will win you games, but they will never win you titles.
The Celtics don't celebrate anything but championships.
At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.
When you go to other parks, they hang banners for the wild-card or Eastern Division or Western Division champions. Around here, they don't hang anything unless its for being world champions.
The air in Foxborough is just a little different. Like, Special things happen here. Winning happens here.
To win the league, you don't just need great players, but you need players who have the mentality of title winners.
Real Madrid are a team of winners.
I know what a championship locker room looks like, what a championship team requires.
The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.
I think being a championship-contending team, you have to have a championship-level coach to take you over the top.
There's no doubt what the goal in Boston is. There is no grey, it is black and white. You're going to try to win the whole thing every single year.
I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing - was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.
