Real nice story, one of my favorite players in the league. Cool to see what it's like going into recovery from an injury in professional sports.
My progress continued in 2008, and on June 16—about 16 months after the injury—I was cleared to play. Then in October, the Miami Heat gave me a shot. That was all Erik Spoelstra and Dwyane Wade. Erik believed in me. He watched me a lot in the film room when I was on the Clippers, and he was a fan of my game. And then with Dwyane, we had the same agent at the time, Henry Thomas, and he vouched for me. It was great to see the Heat give Greg Oden a shot this season after his knee issues. That's what the Heat organization is all about; it's like a family environment.
In regards to his favorite coaches to play for.
Even Spoelstra. I learned a lot from watching him. His work ethic was pretty crazy. Just watching the amount of time he put into his craft, being the first one to arrive. He was the one that was working the whiteboard. Usually that's the assistant coaches. He put in a lot of work, so to see him have success, it feels good to watch him. That was his first year, in 2008, and he was the youngest head coach in the league at the time. I saw how hard he worked, so I can appreciate that.
