Clyde Drexler

You have to understand, the Blazers and their fans had a unique relationship. I'm not sure there has ever been a love affair between an NBA team and its fan base like we had... We had good players and good citizens.

I never stopped trying to improve - after 15 years of playing, I was still trying to think of something I could do better throughout the course of the year.

Guy Lewis was all about efficiency. He was a great motivator. He got real talent and taught his players how he wanted them to play: hard and aggressive!

If you're a young man, and you're being coached by someone like Guy Lewis, you're going to become a better man.

As commissioner, you have to have a great relationship with your players but also to the upper executives: you gotta make sure their mandates are all on target and in line.

To be able to have a professional 3-on-3 league and be a part of that, that's been a ton of fun, ton of fun. The fans love it, the players love playing it, and it's just a lot of fun to be around.

I love the game and played from 13 to 35 for almost every single day.

Jeff Kwatinetz and Ice Cube and Amy Trask - all those people are real visionaries, and the league that they started has been phenomenal. And my job as commissioner now is to kind of help continue to build, improve the fan and the player experience.

I don't care what anybody says: a pro athlete is going to be a role model. I tried to use that as a positive influence, to let kids know we are regular people.

Houston fans want a high value for their entertainment dollar, and if you don't win, they will drop you and go on to the next big deal.

I retired at 35 in '98 and thought, 'There's only one place to go, and that's downward.' I retired at a good level. I was at peace after 15 years - I was lucky to play that long.

Some of the guys in the Eastern Conference, I had never been on their teams - like Larry Bird: even though you make the All Star team, you're going to be in the West; he's on the East. So you're never going to be teammates.