The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens.
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.
No matter how much you've won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you're not winning now, so you stink.
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?
If you can go through the pain period, you make it to be a champion. If you can't go through it, forget it. And that's what most people lack: having the guts - the guts to go in and just say... "I don't care what happens"
If you are not playing for the Stanley Cup at the end of the year, what's the point? If you don't win, you may as well not make the playoffs, because you are loser just like everyone else.
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
I play basketball to win a championship. That championship is everything to me. And that's what gets people to buy in to your brand - being a winner.
Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships.
At the same time, preparation is important to playoff success.
So, I didn't say we are going to win a lot, but we are going to play like winners, and we've got a plan in place to teach our guys how to play like winners and play like a champion.
I'm the best fighter in the division and I'm always willing to prove it.
I am not running after gold medals; I am running after time. And once I get that, gold medals will run after me.
It doesn't matter who we play against, whether it is Barcelona or another big team: when you are Man United, you do not have an excuse. You have to win.
On teams that have won championships and got to the big game, there's a certain vibe and feel in that locker room. Everyone talks about how there's a brotherhood in that locker room, there's not a lot of dissent, there's not guys that go off on their own. It's a team atmosphere.
I don't have to use anything to motivate me, a trade or anything like that, for me to say I want to win a championship.
Everyone can train hard when they are feeling good. But it's the days when you're feeling bad that you have to step up. That's when champions step up. They pull through.
I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That's what makes you a champion.
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.
All great players want to be the reason the team wins.
I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.
There's a different feeling when you show up and you're defending. You can't wait to get out there. You're not anxious that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday would be over, but you're just excited to get that ball in the air on Thursday.
You have to come in to major championships, and your attitude has to be on point.
Every game's a championship game. When we focus that way, get prepared that way-that this is it, you know, this is the last one, the biggest one-you get ready, you get amped up, you get that laser focus and you're ready to play.
Heart in champions has to do with the depth of our motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure - that is, being able to do what you do best under maximum pain and stress.
