Austin Rivers

I really wanted to give back to the youth - especially abused or underprivileged kids. Just hearing their stories breaks your heart. So that's who I wanted to give back to.

I've been on more planes than I can count.

It seemed like my dad was always a thousand miles away, coaching.

I have to do so much to distinguish myself.

One game, one of the kids yelled, 'The only thing Riverses are good at is coaching.' I didn't take offense, I just smiled.

I'm looking forward to a state championship, those are my expectations.

When you don't win, people have to make up a reason.

Business and basketball are two different things.

In high school, I used to just catch the ball and do whatever I wanted and score. In college, you can't do that anymore.

Hate equals motivation. Five years ago, I was known as Doc Rivers's son, and now I'm known as my own person, and that's through hard work.

Golden Oreo cookies. I've got 10 boxes of them in my room. I am obsessed with them. But I burn them right off in practice.

He's a great father - I don't view him as a coach. He gives me advice as a person and as a basketball player, and I've learned a lot from him and my mom.

People always talk about 'Oh, it's so nice that you give back.' It just kind of becomes words. When you see it, when you actually put it together and you see the amount of impact you have on a kid, they're going to remember this for the rest of their life.

I get picked on by my older brother and sister, and I get yelled at for picking on my little brother and for not cleaning my room.

I played through flu-like symptoms before. It was frustrating.

I don't like missing a game.

I thought I was going to die. Seriously. I had a 24-hour flu and then I had a stomach virus. I couldn't get out of my bed without going to the bathroom.

I played on the same AAU team with Brandon Knight.

I grew up playing against Michael Carter-Williams.

I know Chris Paul well. I have a relationship with him.

I can go a week without playing and be all right.

The coaches at Duke really helped me get better.

Wherever I go, I'm going to work as hard as I can and do everything I can to help the team immediately.

Just being in the NBA, period, would be great.

At the end of the day, it's the general managers' and the scouts' opinion on you and what teams need, what they're looking for.

How would you deal with it if you're 9 years old, people are telling you, 'You suck,' and they don't give sympathy? They don't feel bad for you because of who your dad is.

My dad's been like, 'You'll never beat me.' That's how my dad is.

I trust my hard work, so why wouldn't I be confident?

I'd sneak out and work on my game at midnight. The neighbors would call and say, turn the lights off. I went from the worst player to the first guy off the bench to the best player on my ninth-grade team, and then it took off.

I was always Little Doc. And in the sixth grade I was the worst player on the team. People said I was only on the team because of my name.

Whenever anybody plays their old team, there's obviously something there.

You just go out there and shoot it, and that's the way I've been my whole life.

You got to get the opportunity and then you've got to make the most of it.

Some people just can't understand or relate. So why would I care about someone's opinion who doesn't do what I do and live the life I live?

I don't really like to escalate anything.

I've always been a peacemaker.

That's what drove me crazy is people would say - even people who would try to be nice would be like, it's not different than when a dad hires his son at a law firm. I said, it's not the same thing. You can't be given an NBA job. I got drafted.

New Orleans just wasn't anything for me. I didn't fit in. I just couldn't get adjusted.

I always watch guys and take a lot of little stuff. I've taken a lot of hesitation stuff from Steph Curry. I think he's the best at that.

I stopped trying to show everybody I could play. I don't need to show anybody anything. Just go be myself, and if I do that, then I can really show how good of a player I can be.

If you go two years without playing with confidence, when your whole life, you've been extremely confident and a hard worker... I got punched in the mouth, and it took me a while to adjust. I kind of had my confidence - I don't want to say taken away, because no one should ever be able to take your confidence away.

My dad's the type of guy when I was 5 years old, we played checkers and he would not let me win. That's just how he is. He's not doing any favors for me.

My dad would never, ever play me over somebody because I'm his son. If I'm not playing well, I'm sitting on the bench.

He was in Boston and I grew up in Orlando. It's not so much like father-son, it's coach-player.

At the end of the day, my job is to play and compete and that's it.

He and I don't know each other like that. We know each other as strictly basketball. A lot of people on the outside don't understand that because people think we have a relationship like every other father and son. We just don't. That's because he's been gone my whole life, and that's fine.

My father's a very private person. I mean a very private person. His life outside of basketball, he doesn't really share it with anybody.

I'm kind of a loner type of dude when it comes to basketball.

Being a great high school player is one thing, but being a great NBA player is another.

You can't strut around in my house, because everybody has their own achievements.