Brook Lopez

Kids are always looking to sort of fit in.

I remember having a conversation with Kevin Durant, who said in fifth or sixth grade he was praying that he would be shorter.

He didn't want to keep growing.

What was it like to be a 6'7 freshman in high school when you're just sort of trying to figure out testosterone and everything else?

So it wasn't awkward.

It was your normal because your older brother sort of pioneered you in, and so it wasn't something that was abnormal.

Do you guys have much knowledge or connection to the Cuban parts of your history, the Lopez part of your history?

How was that?

What...

What do you guys remember in terms of the challenges in your upbringing, like the obstacles that had to be overcome to get to the things that you wanted to get to?

Two of them on leashes.

How did she do that, Robin?

So he was just too soon?

It was just he didn't have any of the map laid out for him?

Like, why couldn't he have been the pro?

11 years doesn't seem like that long a time.

I'm not understanding, though, mistakes just in terms of what it takes to get all the way to the pros, what it is that you have to do, how meticulous and against the odds it is to get up there.

One of the things that's happening throughout the sport is that a lot of players are getting hurt because of just how taxing it must be to defend the way the game has spread out and the way they've changed pacing and everything else.

It's not a normal thing for people your size to take 16 and 18 years of punishment to the limbs of jumping and running and stuff.

What are the physical manifestations that people wouldn't understand about what has happened to your body over the last 16 years and 18 years?