To me, I don’t even think I had a childhood. From when I was a baby to 12 years old, yes. But as soon as I left the Bahamas, that stuff was over. It was just straight business. I’m on a mission. That’s how it’s always been. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
My head was – I wasn’t screwed up, but I feel like I was shifted away from my family a lot with this basketball stuff. You have people coming around you saying they are family or whatever. They try to keep you away from your real family. That kind of got me. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
I still have my back to the basket because there’s going to be times where I’m going to really have to score down low, but I’m really working on my face-up game because in the league, there’s more space, and there’s not double-teams and triple-teams coming at you like how it was in college. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
Everybody was pressuring me to play basketball, so I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ Deandre Ayton Read Quote
When I started playing basketball, they always would have me at the block, and I’m like, ‘Yo, I don’t want to play down here. I want to do something else.’ This is not entertaining to me, and whatever the guards do, I wanted to do. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
I wasn’t really a student of the game. I just played it because I loved it. I didn’t really look into the greats as much. They just put a ball in my hand, and I did what the coach told me to. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
Demarcus Cousins, he can move. With his size, he can really use his size on the perimeter against anybody. That’s what I want to do when I get to the league. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
I’m representing the Bahamas; I’m representing a lot of islands – it’s a whole nation behind me, on my back. Deandre Ayton Read Quote
I play basketball. I play center, and if you haven’t watched me play, I’m not a regular big man. I can move my feet. Not saying I can stop anyone out there who’s in front of me, but trust me: I can really be a problem on the perimeter guarding somebody. Deandre Ayton Read Quote