The NBA wasn't a big deal at that time, so it wasn't really in my career plans.

The MVP award was very satisfying in terms of personal accomplishments, but the championship was the most important thing of all.

That seemed to be the case with most of the teams based in the smaller towns - the fans were more rabid, and they wanted to literally kill the opposition.

I was the original socially depraved shy ghetto kid.

When I was a teenager, my father went bust. He could have declared himself bankrupt, but he was an honourable man and he insisted on paying back all his debts. That almost ruined the family. I was aware that my mother and father couldn't control things anymore. I guess I was afraid that we would end up on the street.

When I moved to Atlanta, I felt like an outsider - away from my friends and family except for the LGBTQ community.

South Africa is a whole other world. I went to grade school there and high school in Johannesburg, and before that, my family lived in Kenya in Nairobi where my brother was actually born, and my sister was born in Capetown. I spent the first 10 years of my life in South Africa.

Imagine living in a state where businesses can legally refuse to serve people based on their sexual orientation. Where parents can force their children to undergo conversion therapy to 'cure' them of their 'homosexual tendencies.'