Quotes from Bam Adebayo

My mom's never owned anything. I always wanted her to own something that she could say, 'This is mine' and feel good about it.

First year, I was in a real high pace running around and I couldn't pace myself.

A lot of passes that I throw, some of them are kind of thread-the-needle type of passes, and I know Year 1 or Year 2 Bam wouldn't have done that. But you've gotta take the leash off the dog. What's scarier, a dog with a leash walking with a person or a dog with nobody around him?

If I have friends in town visiting, we'll go get dinner, but if I'm just by myself, I'm at the house, watching random TV shows.

I just listen to my Katy Perry. It's just her mood toward her music. She's always happy and perky. So, I mean, I like to be happy. Might as well listen to happy music.

'Last Friday Night'... I just heard a song, and I just liked Katy Perry ever since.

I sucked. It was my first time picking up a basketball. I watched it on TV, but I never knew what to really do with it. I mean, I needed help with everything.

To be in the Finals and the medical staff is telling me I can't play... it sucks.

Growing up in a trailer, you think everything you get is good. I always thought it was a gift from God, because some people are out here struggling and on the street. We had warmth. We had clothes. We had a roof over our head.

I'm an African-American man. I've got to live with that. I've got to be cautious everywhere I go.

I'm thinking bigger picture; I want a championship.

I understand that we want to be in the middle of protests with our bodies and we want people to know that we're there supporting Black Lives Matter, which I'm 100 percent about. And I'm 100 percent about going to the bubble and doing it on national television where everybody sees it.

When you get in this profession, you want the coaches to put more on your plate.

I'm a competitor. I like compete.

Hard work pays off. But it doesn't stop now. I know I'm generational wealthy, as you can say, but still got business to handle.

That's been my challenge. Go out there and guard the best player and get it done on both ends. It's been working out pretty good for me. Just got to keep that thing going.

Growing up, it was just me and my mom. I watched her struggle for 17 years, and when I was 19, I got a chance to pay off all of her debt after two paychecks. That's a crazy feeling.

I feel like I've built big enough platform and still building my platform for us to get justice for Breonna Taylor.

My mentality is I have to be better for my teammates.

I feel like if a dude wants to get his point across and wants to protest, I feel like he has the right to do that.

When you get into the Finals, I don't think anybody is completely healthy.

It doesn't matter if it's Spencer Dinwiddie, Taurean Prince, DeAndre Jordan, I'm trying to win that matchup every time.

I just got to be more aggressive. A lot of time, I just got to make the right reads. It's nothing major, just minor tweaks.

I'm passionate about schoolwork because I don't like getting bad grades.