(CRAFT)[THE BASKET STAYS STATIONARY.]

When someone like Shane Battier face-guarded me it didn’t really impact my game. I believed that I could just shoot through it. The basket wasn’t moving, so muscle memory just kicked into work. I didn’t have to see the rim to make a bucket.

Shane, as a whole, was a solid defensive player. He was smart, too, smart enough to understand that talking trash riled me up. Shane, as a counter to that, would tell people he couldn’t guard me. By doing that, Shane thought he was going to take the bite out of my game, take the edge off. But I saw through that tactic, understood his premeditated modesty, and attacked him because of it. Safe to say, I had a lot of fun playing against him.