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Dime: At the same time, you have people here that you have to support. What is it like being a dad?
MB: It’s fun, man. It’s humbling. It’s a learning experience. Growing up you’re always thinking “Me, me, me.” “How am I gonna get this? How am I gonna get that?” Once you have a kid, it’s not all about you any more. It’s, “How can I do for my family? How will this decision affect my family?” Me having a child, it made me slow down. Before, it was like, “Okay, if I do this I could get in trouble.” Now it’s like, “If I do that, if I take this turn or take that turn, my daughter has to suffer.” That’s not fair to her.

Dime: Where do you get that from?
MB: I mean, I try not to read all the articles and (online) forums and stuff, but I still see where they’ll say “Beasley is a bust … Beasley can’t do this … Beasley can’t defend.” It hurts me because I put my whole life into this game. I put blood, sweat and tears into this, and then people smack me in the face by calling me a bust and saying I’m going nowhere. I would never talk about somebody like that about their craft, and I don’t want anybody talking that way about me.

Dime: So what’s the plan?
MB: I’m about to show everybody in the world that Michael Beasley can still play basketball. I’m still the beast from K-State. I wasn’t like a lot of top draft picks where I went to the worst team in the NBA and got the ball handed to me. I went to a world-class organization, a championship team just a few years before that, a team that had the best player in the NBA in Dwyane Wade. My scoring ability and talent wasn’t necessarily needed like that. I just think now I have something to prove to the world with the Timberwolves. I can still play, I can still lead a team, and my team can win.

Dime: Nobody is expecting the T-Wolves to do much this year. What would you consider a good season for the team?
MB: Forty-five wins or more. A playoff appearance. Just because outside people think we’re not supposed to win doesn’t mean we’re not supposed to win. If me and my team let the rest of the world manipulate us, we’ll end up exactly like they think. Man, we’re in the gym working hard every day on this team. We go bowling. We do things as a team. Teamwork makes the green work, you know? It won’t matter if the whole world thinks we’re gonna win one game next year, we believe we’re better than that.

Ojmayo wrote:45+ wins really reuined this whole interview, but the rest was great.

Dime: At the same time, you have people here that you have to support. What is it like being a dad?
MB: It’s fun, man. It’s humbling. It’s a learning experience. Growing up you’re always thinking “Me, me, me.” “How am I gonna get this? How am I gonna get that?” Once you have a kid, it’s not all about you any more. It’s, “How can I do for my family? How will this decision affect my family?” Me having a child, it made me slow down. Before, it was like, “Okay, if I do this I could get in trouble.” Now it’s like, “If I do that, if I take this turn or take that turn, my daughter has to suffer.” That’s not fair to her.

Dime: Where do you get that from?
MB: I mean, I try not to read all the articles and (online) forums and stuff, but I still see where they’ll say “Beasley is a bust … Beasley can’t do this … Beasley can’t defend.” It hurts me because I put my whole life into this game. I put blood, sweat and tears into this, and then people smack me in the face by calling me a bust and saying I’m going nowhere. I would never talk about somebody like that about their craft, and I don’t want anybody talking that way about me.

Dime: In college, you said your NBA goals were to win MVP, lead the league in scoring, rebounding, everything. Now that you’ve been in the League, are your goals the same?
MB: They are. I wanna be the best, point-blank, period. No disrespect to all the great players that are in the NBA and that have ever played in the NBA, but we all wanna be the best. Nobody fights for second-best. If we did, the NBA wouldn’t be as competitive.

Dime: How good do you think you are right now?
MB: I’m at the bottom of the barrel. And I’ll say that because it gives me a reason to fight for the top.

Outletpass5 wrote:In an interview last night someone asked him a question a long the lines of.. Did you guys come into the season expecting to win X amount of games by a certain date and his response was great. I can't find the exact link but he said something like this... Well coming into the season we were expecting to go 82-0 but as our record stands now you can see it isn't going as well as we hoped.

Joe Hollywood wrote:Beasley at the 3 reminds me of the great Bernard King..

Wolves have become my #1 league pass team to watch..Love the way Love plays the game.. awesome..God I hope you guys land Rubio.