RealGM

Were you aware of Donald Sterling's reputation then?
When the draft lottery came out and the Clippers said they were gonna draft me, I went to Google to find out more about the Clippers, because I didn't know a lot. And I was like, "Okay, team owned by Donald Sterling." So then I typed in "Donald Sterling" in Google, and the first thing that pops up is "Donald Sterling racist." And I was like, "Whoa!" So obviously I explored that, read a whole bunch of articles, read the deposition at one of his court cases. Which was awesome, if you ever have time to read some of the depositions. [laughs]

What was your impression of him?
The second time I met him... He throws a white party in Malibu every single year, so everyone has to wear white or you can't come. I get there, and this dude is wearing all black. The only person at this party. He throws a white party, he wears all black. And as soon as I get there, he comes to the front, we talk for a second, and he's like, "Come on, I want to introduce you to everyone." Grabs my hand and starts walking me through the party while we're holding hands, and just introduces me to everybody.

You guys had a team meeting that Saturday at which you spoke. What did you say?
A lot of guys spoke. Our coach spoke first. And basically what I said was... We were trying to come up with a plan. Some guys wanted to do something. Some guys didn't want to. I was one of the guys—and I don't know, I might catch flak for this—I was one of the guys who didn't want to do anything. I didn't want to give this one incident the power that it doesn't deserve. You know what I mean? And coincidentally, I had just, for the first time, watched the Jackie Robinson movie and watched how he dealt with it, even though obviously it's a movie. And I've actually read Hank Aaron books and a lot of things. I just felt like the best way to respond to something like that is just to go out and do what we do and not let it affect us. Because we're the ones that get affected, not anybody else. So that's why I took that position. But I completely understood why guys did want to do something. I was just kind of one of the ones that was like, "Let's just play basketball."

Do you think it ultimately affected you guys in the playoffs?
I want to say no, but at the same time, even not trying to think about something is energy and effort. The one thing I didn't want to do is use that as an excuse. Because every player and every person at some point deals with issues—personal issues, whatever it is, they deal with issues. And that was our issue. And we had a full team of guys who could kind of lean on each other, so we were fortunate in that sense. It's not like it was an individual thing or it affected two people. It affected all of us.

As a fan, what did you think of LeBron returning to Cleveland?
I think it's great. The way he did it—the way he released that statement or article, whatever you want to call it—I think it shows a lot about him. And to be honest, it shows that he's a much bigger person than I think people gave him credit for. Because that's a tough thing to forgive. I mean, this man's family's lives were threatened. People constantly yelling at him. And not just Cleveland fans—from all over the world, everywhere he went, he got booed. The Cleveland fans burned this man's jersey in the street. He was Osama bin Laden. He got so much hate for choosing to go. And I get it. It was about the way he went about it. But that would have been tough, to just really be like, "Okay, you know what, I'm gonna come back home. I'm forgiving them. If you guys forgive me, I'm forgiving you." I think that takes a lot.

Who's the favorite next year?
I feel like you gotta say the Spurs. Just because, year after year, they never go away. They're like the model of success when it comes to building an NBA team. Tim Duncan is another perfect example of a guy who's over the years lost athleticism but stayed right there at the highest level, because of his work ethic and the way he goes about it. So you can never count them out.

How are you feeling about your own game and your own prospects?
I don't know, man. I've seen so many ups and downs. Every summer, I just try to put in the work, and then whatever shape the team takes, that's kind of how it takes. If I need to be, like, a guy that scores a lot, I'm willing to do that. Two seasons ago, I didn't average as many points. The lowest I ever had, my career low. And I wasn't, like, upset about it or anything. Just, that was just how the team took shape. The starters didn't play as many minutes. Played career-low minutes, career-low shots, and average career-low points, which seems on par. But I just felt like, after my first year, my second and third, I just took so much heat. I didn't think I was doing that poorly, to take this amount of heat. You know what I mean? And I hear almost everything. And I'm not sure, not exactly sure why.

What was it that Klay Thompson said before the playoff series? That you were a "bull in a china shop"?
Bull in a china shop, yeah. But the thing about that is, it depends on who you are. If you're the bull, being a bull in a china shop is not a bad thing. If you're the china, it's a bad thing. So I want to be the bull. I don't want to be the china.

Do you think about life post-basketball?
Yeah, I do. I don't have like a clear-cut plan, but I'm 90 percent sure that I won't be involved in basketball. I'll obviously be supportive and help out there, but I don't want to stay in the NBA world or anything like that. I think once I'm done, I'll be done.

Who's a better comic actor, you or Michael Jordan?
[laughs] I hope I am! I hope to God I am. If I'm not, I'll probably just walk away right now and never do anything involving...I won't watch any other comedy show ever again, or stand-up.

Charles Barkley seems to have an issue with you.
Yeah. I mean, I thought we were cool, and then all of a sudden... I think the whole former-player thing, where they come and they're now analysts, it's hard, because they don't want to give it up to anybody. Unless they really, really have to. Or you have a relationship with them. And I never really had a relationship with him. To this day, I don't think I've even met him.

He's been a constant critic of yours. He's called you out for flopping and suggested that you're overrated.
Yeah, it's been a long time. I'm not a big fan. [laughs] It's hard. As a kid, I was a huge fan. And then, after so many times of hearing somebody say something negative about you, then it's like, okay, this is like a thing—it's a personal thing. You know what I mean? It's like the saying "Don't meet your heroes." I haven't met him, but I don't really need to anymore. Which is unfortunate.

What have you learned from fatherhood so far?
This is what everybody says, and I didn't really get it. People were like, "Oh, it's so life-changing, it makes you think about things in a different way," and you're always like, "Oh yeah, totally." But then, when it happens, you're like, "Whoa. All those people were right!" I just feel changed, in a way. I really look forward to spending time with this little person who can't talk, can't do anything for himself besides chew and eat. [laughs]

How do you date women now?
That's probably been the biggest trial-and-error area of my life. And I can't say today I have it down completely. But I was fortunate. I dated a girl my first couple of years out here, and it was great. We got along great. And eventually that ended, but still today we're very cool. But it's really been trial-and-error. And there were a couple of times where I didn't get burned in the sense of, like, you know, getting money taken or anything like that, but just like, whenever it ended, it ended poorly, and then kind of got put out there a little bit. And it's just kind of an eye-opening experience. But it's hard, man. Like, there's so many... People just think about L.A. and they think, "Oh, there's so many beautiful women out here," and things of that nature. But it is so hard to find just like a decent, like straight, you know, across-the-line, just like good girl out here. And I think part of it might be because I'm used to, you know, the midwestern kind of girls, and things like that. But I honestly haven't really truly dated anybody for a while. Not in a real close sense.