“Everyone in my family has played basketball. My mom played basketball in highschool and my dad and my brother both played in college. I honestly feel like that really did affect me wanting to play—I was always a big sports person, I played almost every sport imaginable. When I started middle school I was probably playing three different sports when my dad asked me to choose one that I wanted to continue with. I chose basketball. I think my brother really influenced me to play because when I was younger, I would always be at his games and try and copy the things I saw him do, ‘cause he was my older sibling and stuff like that.
Because I’ve been playing since such a young age, I’ve been able to develop my skill really well. Everyone always said I had a knack for it; I guess because I’ve been around basketball for so long. Just from watching, literally watching so much basketball, I can sort of figure out how people react in certain situations. I think that really helps to have “a high basketball IQ”… In that sense I do really well, but at the same time, I need to hustle more, I don’t know how to explain it. I guess I could say this: a lot of the coaches say the hard things in basketball come super easy for me, but I need to push myself a little bit more. Over the past two years that’s one thing that I’ve been working on. Pushing myself in all aspects and just going after it, because I tend to hesitate in life. Honestly, I overthink a lot of things, but recently I’ve been trying to throw myself into different projects and say “yes I’ll do this” then making sure I do it and I follow through.”