Welcome to the world of C. J. McCollum, where basketball prowess meets insightful wisdom. As a prominent figure in the NBA, C. J. McCollum has not only dazzled fans with his impressive skills on the court but has also captivated audiences with his eloquent and thought-provoking words off the hardwood. Whether discussing the nuances of the game or sharing his perspective on life, McCollum’s quotes resonate with authenticity and depth, offering glimpses into his mindset and philosophy.
This page serves as a curated collection of some of the most compelling quotes from C. J. McCollum. From motivational gems to introspective reflections, these quotes provide inspiration and food for thought for fans, athletes, and enthusiasts alike. Whether you’re seeking a dose of encouragement or simply intrigued by McCollum’s perspective, you’ll find an array of insightful and memorable quotes on this topic below. So, feel free to explore, reflect, and perhaps even find a quote that resonates deeply with you.
I think I’m the first player in NBA history to average 20 points a game and shoot two free throws per game. C. J. McCollum
There’s a whole world out there. And it’s huge. C. J. McCollum
When I started playing professionally, it made me realize that I had a voice in the league, one that gave me the chance to share a different side of our day-to-day life and the things that were happening on and off the court. C. J. McCollum
Other people need to be forward thinkers. Not just basketball players. Not just people in the sports world. But people in general. C. J. McCollum
I’m a fan of Stance socks. C. J. McCollum
Lowry is a pitbull. He’s a gritty player who scores in a variety of ways, but he’s also one of the few guards who also does the things that go unnoticed on the stat sheet. C. J. McCollum
It’s mentally draining to be on 100% of the time on both ends of the floor, especially when you’re the team’s undisputed shot creator. C. J. McCollum
Kyrie is the ultimate versatility weapon. He’s good in isos, he’s good in pick-and-rolls, he’s good in transition. He got game. C. J. McCollum
I’ve won league championships, and I helped pull off a massive NCAA tournament upset – our 15-versus-2 win over Duke in 2012. C. J. McCollum
I graduated from Lehigh with a degree in journalism. C. J. McCollum
Like, if I’m assessing someone’s game and they can’t shoot, they can’t shoot. And they know they can’t shoot. It’s not like I’m making fun of them. I just keep it real, man. C. J. McCollum
Over the course of my life, there have been so many people who have invested in me and provided me with opportunities to grow. C. J. McCollum
It’s been a part of my game for life. It’s tougher to finish in the lane so you’ve got to find different areas to score efficiently and the mid-range contested shot is a shot a lot of teams will live with. And it’s a shot I’m willing to live with as well just because I’ve gotten so many shots at it and I’m comfortable with it. C. J. McCollum
Other fans might stop coming to games when their teams fall in the standings. Blazers fans just pack the house even more. C. J. McCollum
I think that’s the biggest thing in this sport is when you prepare, you have extra confidence. C. J. McCollum
My mother, my father, my brother, they’ve done a tremendous job of preparing me and helping me get right in having confidence. C. J. McCollum
Nothing really comes easy to you when you’re under-recruited, you’re undersized, you’re undervalued. It’s a situation where you have to be better than the bigger guys. C. J. McCollum
For me, understanding your heritage and wanting to leave a legacy was always important to me. C. J. McCollum
I spend a lot of time in the gym working on moves, working on difficult shots, figuring out ways to create space, becoming a tough-shot taker and a tough shot maker, especially down the stretch. C. J. McCollum
When you’re smaller, you kind of learn how to do other things. You have to work a little bit harder. C. J. McCollum
Everything in the NBA is sped up. Lanes close much faster than college. C. J. McCollum
Preparation is everything. You don’t like being interviewed by someone who hasn’t done their research. C. J. McCollum
It’s important that we take care of our future generations and expose them to some new things. C. J. McCollum
Offensively, Lowry is a great catch-and-shoot player from deep, and he’s very comfortable shooting the trey off the bounce in isolations and pick-and-roll. C. J. McCollum
I do a good job of taking care of my body. C. J. McCollum
I wanted to do a lot of things in wine, but I didn’t know how to do it. So before I invested in anything, before I really put my dollars into it, I put my whole heart, soul, mind into it so that I really understand the severity of each outcome, the severity of success and the severity of failure. C. J. McCollum
I think, when you get to know somebody on a personal level were you truly understand what makes them tick, what they play for, things they like to do in their spare time, you’re around their families, I think you’re kind of able to kind of coexist more when you have a relationship. C. J. McCollum
When you’re in the playoffs, you have to get easy baskets and you have to limit their easy baskets. C. J. McCollum
To graduate in four years as a student-athlete with no summer school is quite a feat. C. J. McCollum
In order for us to have changes in society, we have to do a better job with listening to each other, listening to stories, listening to experiences and sharing things. That’s the way you’re able to come to a better understanding of people in general. We have to do a better job in society. It starts at the top. C. J. McCollum
I always say, it’s not the shoes; it’s the player. If you can hoop, you can hoop. C. J. McCollum
We don’t have those bougie, not-into-it, wouldn’t-be-caught-dead-in-the-free-t-shirt hoops fans in Portland. We’ve got those pinwheel-tattooed, bleeding-red-and-black, still-rocking-that-Walton-jersey, ride-or-die, realer-than-real hoops fans in Portland. The love is real. The support is real. C. J. McCollum
At the combine we went through medical exams from every team, the most extensive physicals I’ve ever had: blood tests, MRIs, heart monitors, everything. Because of my injury teams really paid attention to my lower body. C. J. McCollum
I think, in moderation, taunting is a part of life. C. J. McCollum
There’s just so many great artists out there, but I think growing up, J. Cole has been the guy that I’ve always been listening to, even in college. Going from that struggle to stardom, that rise to stardom, ‘Dolla and a Dream,’ all that stuff – I’ve listened to all his classics, all the old J. Cole stuff. C. J. McCollum
Growing up in the inner city, a lot of kids didn’t think reading was cool. I’m trying to show them that it is cool and the importance of growing and learning outside of their everyday lives, which is a lot of times sports. C. J. McCollum
I’m just trying to diversify my portfolio and put myself in a position so when I do retire, the options are limitless. C. J. McCollum
I think sometimes there’s this perception that players are supposed to be robots. C. J. McCollum
My parents have done a tremendous job, over the course of my career. They try to make every game and I think my rookie year, my mom made every game… They’ve been really consistent and it’s all you can ask for as a kid. C. J. McCollum
Yea, I wrote my college thesis on why college athletes should get paid. I think there’s a way to do it based on the amount of revenue they generate. C. J. McCollum
You get better by playing, honestly. That’s where you develop as a player is to play through mistakes in game action. C. J. McCollum
You want to see range? Dame has range. C. J. McCollum
You got to be able to hit mid-range shots, you got to able to hit threes and you got to be able to finish in the lane. C. J. McCollum
It’s crazy, I almost quit basketball when I was younger. C. J. McCollum
I like Zach Lowe. C. J. McCollum
You gotta really enjoy off days. C. J. McCollum
I ended up breaking a bone in my foot early in my rookie season, and honestly, it was kind of a blessing. I had so much free time while being laid up that I put a lot of time in on film to understand the game from a different vantage point. C. J. McCollum
Harden throws his body around a lot and is a master at drawing fouls. It could be considered borderline flopping sometimes, but he’s a vet who knows how to get to the line. C. J. McCollum
A lot of people have compared being an NBA rookie to being a fraternity pledge. It’s not really intense like that. It’s more like being an intern. C. J. McCollum
People think because there’s only 24 hours in a day, we’re just supposed to play our sport and then go home and think some more about our sport. They don’t think that we should care about other things, but the reality is that you can be really good at what you do for a living and have other hobbies. C. J. McCollum
I was 5-6, a little chubby, spot-up 3-point shooter. So I couldn’t blame the schools for not recruiting me. But then my junior year, I was 5-11, hit a little growth spurt. C. J. McCollum
Growing up I was a Cleveland Browns fan and my mood would change based on how they were playing. If they were losing I wasn’t as happy, I wasn’t as excited, I was a little sad. C. J. McCollum
As players we’re held accountable for poor performance, I think the same should be said for journalists. C. J. McCollum
As you get more experience out there, as you get more comfortable with the NBA system, the offense, the schemes, you begin to understand where you’re going to get your looks from. And I think a big part of playing well is not having to look over your shoulder and just understanding that you’re consistently be counted on. C. J. McCollum
For me personally, I like a smooth pinot noir with a lot of cherry fruit flavor. In the proper mood, I like a little earth and a little spice as well. C. J. McCollum
When you have an almost seven-foot wingspan and can guard multiple positions, you’re going to get minutes. C. J. McCollum
It’s nice to say you have goals and that you want to win championships. But until you get thrown into the fire, you can’t truly grasp what it takes to accomplish those goals. C. J. McCollum
We need to play like somebody took our lunch money, like somebody disrespected your mother. I think that’s the type of anger you need have and the aggression you need to have on the court. That doesn’t mean making mad faces or mean faces but it means attacking the glass, strongly attacking the rim when you have the ball on offense. C. J. McCollum
Competitive people, especially in sports, want to learn about everything. So when you’re interested in something, you become a bit obsessive. You start to research it and ask questions about it, and before you know it, you have a serious hobby because of how you’re programmed. C. J. McCollum
I take a lot of pride in being flexible, preserving my body. After a workout, I ice both feet, my calves, knees and stretch. C. J. McCollum
I don’t care how much you traveled in college, and I don’t care what kind of shape you’re in. Travel is the one thing you’re absolutely not prepared for as a rookie. C. J. McCollum
I like to take it back, cause I’m an old soul. Growing up, my brothers, I’d grow up hearing what they were playing, and that’s how my taste has evolved. C. J. McCollum
Life happens fast. You have to have a Plan B, a backup plan and really figure out a way to have different avenues of income and just avenues of happiness. That is what is really important, being at peace and having that happiness. C. J. McCollum
You have to learn how to win in this league. It’s a process. C. J. McCollum
As a kid growing up in Canton, Ohio, you never see yourself in a position to play in the NBA, much less have somebody pay you to wear shoes. C. J. McCollum
I like watches. C. J. McCollum
One of the advantages of going to a small school is that you’re expected to be the man. They have to give you the ball, and there’s more room for error in a situation where you can play your way through mistakes (and no matter how good you are, this is a valuable coping skill at the NBA level). C. J. McCollum
If I could go back in time and give Rookie C.J one piece of wisdom, it would be that sometimes less is more. Off the court, sometimes it’s just better to shut up and be quiet. C. J. McCollum
Other fans get antsy when their team’s offense struggles to score for a few possessions. Blazers fans give us standing ovations, like they’re trying to will their energy into us. C. J. McCollum
Sometimes recruiters and scouts are missing on players. Going after the guys who are really hyped, five-star players and guys that are playing in grassroots and are seen all the time. Then there are the players that developed internally. They go to small schools and they continue to work on their games and they blow up later. C. J. McCollum
In college, the line is so close that you can kind of half-heartedly shoot the ball off-balance and fading away. To shoot an NBA three, because the arc of your shot has to be a little higher, you have to be squared up and get your legs into it more, which can be tough in the fourth quarter. C. J. McCollum
Draymond Green is one of the best in the league at grabbing a defensive rebound and starting the break. C. J. McCollum
It’s been a tough 2020, honestly, for me personally, for a lot of people in the world in general. C. J. McCollum
I think being able to make the playoffs alone is an outstanding accomplishment alone and something not a lot of people get to experience in their careers. C. J. McCollum
When I think about defending Kyrie, I think about respect. His shooting percentages were close to 50/40/90 as a 19-year-old rookie. When you come into this league with numbers like that, defenders have to respect your jumper. C. J. McCollum
One thing I love about guards in this league is that you can be a 5-foot-9 pit bull or a methodical 6-foot-7 jump-shooter, and still succeed in your own way. C. J. McCollum
I had a few brief, brief interactions with Coach K. Mainly us beating them in the NCAA Tournament back in 2012. C. J. McCollum
I ended up switching over to journalism in college. A few weeks into freshman year, I realized that business school wasn’t for me. And writing stories and reading and talking to people is something that I just enjoy doing, so I figured why not try to build up a post-basketball career with that. C. J. McCollum
I’ve been playing basketball since I was five. C. J. McCollum
I work really hard on my craft. C. J. McCollum
Writing and speaking and communicating, it’s something important to me, and something I want to get better at. C. J. McCollum
I’m not just a dumb basketball player who got lucky and graduated from college. My ratio for professor to student was nine-to-one so it wasn’t like I wasn’t going to class. I was going to class every day. C. J. McCollum
As a competitor, you always want to receive the best rewards. But you understand that it is a team sport, and you understand the better your team plays, the more you are rewarded. C. J. McCollum
Life in the NBA can be one big constant distraction, especially when you’re on the road. You’re always moving from one place to the next, always on the phone, checking texts, social media, all of that stuff. It takes you out of yourself. C. J. McCollum
I have a responsibility and a job as a guy who gets paid a lot of money, I’m expected to perform. And 82 games in 6-7 months is a lot, and it’s hard on the body, and you’re not gonna play perfect every night. Even Ray Allen misses shots, even LeBron misses dunks. C. J. McCollum
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Portland basketball fans are the best basketball fans in the world. C. J. McCollum
Growing up in the inner city, you might not see a lot of different career paths and different jobs. C. J. McCollum
I accept who I am. Rapping is not my forte. C. J. McCollum
Even since I’ve been in the NBA, a lot has changed with the game. C. J. McCollum
When you’re watching from the bench, you can pick up on everything – where guys like to shoot the ball from, how teams defend the pick-and-roll, which big men are good at hedging the screen and so on. C. J. McCollum
I like Malcolm Gladwell. C. J. McCollum
America certainly is a great country with plenty of freedoms, but there are a lot of systemic issues that need to change. C. J. McCollum
When games get tight in the playoffs, especially in the Finals, there’s no space. There’s no clean looks. C. J. McCollum
I’ve been a guy who’s never really been satisfied. Work hard, try to figure out ways to improve, try to figure out ways to sustain a certain level of play. C. J. McCollum
I try not to worry about nothing I can’t control. I can’t control rumors. C. J. McCollum
I got hurt my senior year of college. I ended up breaking my fifth metatarsal after I pulled out of the Draft. That was a good experience for me to kind of find myself, figure out a plan for post-basketball because obviously it doesn’t last forever. C. J. McCollum
Canton has meant a lot to me. C. J. McCollum
The intensity and importance of each possession. That’s the thing about the NBA that doesn’t always translate to television. C. J. McCollum
Being able to go to someone’s house and have dinner with them and their family, being able to go see a movie with them, or go shopping, it makes you really care for someone and hope that they succeed. That means a lot in an on-court relationship. It creates trust. C. J. McCollum
I think you should look at it as a blessing that other people would think you’re valuable enough to be mentioned in a trade. It could be worse. No one could want you. C. J. McCollum
