Quotes from Dion Waiters

I just want to be respected.

I was never a bad guy, never got in trouble. It's just that I played with anger and I was aggressive or I really never smiled.

It's great, just to even get mentioned in the category with the type of person like Dwyane Wade, one of the best NBA players in the league today. It's great, and that makes me work even that much harder to be better than him.

Let Dion Waiters be him. Correct me when I'm wrong but let me make mistakes.

You've got to wake up and perfect your craft, every day, and at the end of the day, you know, you get the star power, magazines, photos shoots, but you've got to say humble, you've got to stay grounded.

You know, I wake up every day with a T-shirt and shorts on.

Like I've said, you've got to bet on yourself sometimes... I bet on myself and it worked.

Work on your game. Block everything else out. Don't worry about your brand. Work on your game. So you can come into the league ready and prepared.

I was so locked in. At one point I remember thinking, I'm not going to be a father, boyfriend, friend, whatever. I'm here to play.

You can call me whatever. Philly Cheese. Bubble Cheese. Whatever.

I've hit big shots in real games. I love the moment. I cherish the moment.

Every night is not going to be your night, I understand that. But I learned how to impact the game other ways and I think my defense, my playmaking ability is surprising a lot of people.

I'm a competitor. Any time you work hard and you envision something a certain way and it's not going as you planned and you see it, you know, you go back to the drawing board and you figure it out.

I've had an amazing experience at Syracuse University.

My mom got shot. My dad got shot. Some of the craziest stuff. All that happened to me.

I can't predict the future. All I can do is continue to try to stay in shape and work on my game and have a clear mind and not try to think about negative stuff.

During this quarantine I've been dieting, getting my weight down, getting in shape.

I'm planning to go watch tape to see what D-Wade did when he played with LeBron. I need to learn how to be effective out there with him.

I learned how to be a pro, I learned how to win, I learned about building relationships with your teammates; it goes beyond basketball. I pretty much learned everything I know from OKC.

It killed me being on the bench and watching my teammates play. I wanted to be out there helping them win. But that gave me more motivation.

You stay sharp. You go back into the gym. You work, put that work in, get that conditioning up, you lift. You pretty much know as a pro athlete what you need to do to get yourself back. But none of that, for me, means as much as playing.

I'm used to having the ball, man. So, not really having the ball in my hands... it's just me trying to find different ways to impact the game.

I was that guy who you point the finger at, but I was fine with it. I could take it.

When I do get in the game, just getting me going. How do you get me going? If that's running plays or things where I can impact and get going. But once I'm in the flow, I'm in the flow. It's hard to get me out of that.