Shane Battier

I was the only kid in town that had a black dad and a white mom.

So in an elementary school of 500 kids, I was the only black kid.

Okay, I got a pick on pitcher day, everyone else got a comb.

Okay, on Martin Luther King Day, I was expected to know everything about black culture from the dawn of civilization.

And I was a foot taller than everybody else.

Okay, so I was the kid who always had to carry a birth certificate with him at the Little League game.

So like, I was an outcast wherever I went.

So I was mixed tall and poor.

The only place I really felt at home was at recess and playing kickball and playing dodgeball and playing basketball and baseball, all the sports.

And I realized like when I help my friends win, like I'm not I'm no longer the poor kid, the mixed kid, the tall kid.

All right.

I'm just a kid who helped my friends win.

So I didn't care about what I did or how I looked.

All I cared about is, did we win?

And did I help my friends win?

So I'm going to do whatever it takes.

I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure my friends look good and that we win.

I took that lesson from kindergarten.

So it was born out of desperation.

It was born out of just, I want to be loved.