Jabari Parker

I know what it was like to grow up in Chicago and see the same problems every day.

I've scored 30s and 20s off of guys who say they try to play defense.

Look at everybody in the league. They don't pay players to play defense.

We might all come from different places, but home means something - something powerful - to each of us.

I'm lucky to have the support and the platform I have, and I plan on making the most of it.

Growing up, I admired old cars. In Chicago, on the South Side, people didn't have the newest cars, but one thing I always noticed was that they took good care of their cars. It was a pride thing. Even if you had a funky Oldsmobile, you kept it clean. You changed the oil. You took a toothbrush to the rims.

Old cars have things to say. With an old car, you have to be extra observant about everything. You have to listen and pay attention - to how the engine sounds, where the oil levels are at, if it's running hot, all of that. You've gotta be tuned in, and I like that. New cars, to me they just feel like plain sheets of metal.

Yeah, I've had injuries.

As a basketball player, you dream of being able to play in front of your hometown. And if you're lucky, other guys from your city are right there beside you.

Milwaukee, man... it's home.

You know I'm a Chicago kid, and Chicago will always have a big piece of my heart. But with Milwaukee - for me it was just love at first sight. As soon as I got here, I was like, Wow, this is the place for me.

I wanted to be like Juwan Howard, whose basketball camp I went to as kid for six years. Those camps meant everything to me and my friends. We'd all seen Juwan on TV and then... there he was. In our gym. We could see him. We could give him a high five.

Going back and getting my degree is something that I promised myself and my mom the day I called her and my dad to tell them that I was entering the draft. Not a lot of people in my family can say they got a college diploma, so I want to do that - for them and for me.

We're professionals, everybody scores. It's just a matter of limiting them as much as you can and trying to contain them.

When it comes to me not supporting Donald Trump, it's pretty much correlated to the things he has said.

I'm trying to be a throwback player and only stick with one team.

People in life have those issues - ups and downs - and I'm just a trailblazer to show whatever you do, you always get up. No matter how far you fall, you always get up.

I believe that if you love what you do, and you work hard at it, everything falls in place.

I want to show good sportsmanship.

Black Lives Matter and police brutality are issues that are important to me.

Really, I've been set up for a good position where Duke is setting me up for a lot of exposure, and it's part of my responsibility to show up for them because the team that we have, I play a really vital role.

I try to fulfill my role and my responsibility as much as I can.

I don't care what haters think - I'm proud to not stay in Trump hotels.

We carry home with us, all the good and the bad and the in-between.

No matter how far I get into my career, even if I get hurt again, it's just a part of who I am. On the flip, I'm a warrior, I'm a soldier, I get up. As many times as I fell, I've still gotten up, and that's way more rewarding to me than any other thing that I've ever accomplished, and I'm proud of that.

Basketball is not who I am; it's what I do.

That's what drives me, just to be there for my team.

I think what I wanted mostly to experience in college is playing college basketball and learning.

I really wasn't a guy that idolizes fame and self-glorification.

I'm just always around my cars. My favorite brand is Cadillac.

I think people know about my love for cars - my infatuation for cars.

It's always good to have people from my school accomplish great things. It doesn't necessarily have to be just basketball. I want to see more people do other things from my school.

I really want to be a philanthropist.

You can't know who you are unless you know where you came from and give praise to those who laid the foundation.

I'm always looking toward the next game. You're only as good as your last one. That keeps me going.

I want to be just like Michael Jordan. Chicago greats get noticed around the city. People have a lot of respect for them. I look up to those guys a lot. I want to be part of that family.

Everybody knows I hate attention.

I just want to be a good person, to be a good man for my family, and to my community and just to keep on playing this game that I love.

My mother is basically an immigrant because she came from Tonga.

I was named after a Muslim.

You don't want to endorse hate; you don't want to endorse racism. You don't want to support controversy.

Kids are cruel.

When you really struggle at one thing, you don't take it for granted.

If I can't defend my opponent and if he scores as much I'm scoring then he won the matchup.

My role is what I make it to be. That's just playing the right way, being a good teammate and hopefully everything else takes care of itself.

I want to always serve other people. It could be the youngest guy in the gym that looks up to me or the oldest fella. I just want to be there for them.

I love spilling my creativity on paper. I just draw.

I always pray before the game. I have a big-time belief in that. It just gives me that extra boost, the confidence, the faith that I'm going to play and be safe.

I love sleep. I find sleep to be a hobby.