It's very hot and humid in Houston. Being in L.A. for 10 years, that kind of spoiled me a little bit, so every time I got back home, I'm like, 'Damn it's hot out here.' But I love it.
The more and more you touch the ball in the post and get game reps, you just get comfortable and confident and I think that's a big part of the game.
I didn't really lift consistently before I got to the NBA. In college, I would skip out on it or not do as many reps because, honestly, I didn't like it. I was like 'Man, I'm not going to put on weight, I'm always going to be skinny, I'm not going to be big as the sky.'
What I am today, is from Houston and my friends, my closest friends, we all went to high school together.
I was a kid growing up in Houston, didn't have a lot - three younger brothers, a single mom. It was tough.
Oh, man, I was a stick in high school. I had a bird chest; I got called that a lot: 'Bird chest.' But I've always been comfortable with my body, even when I was super skinny.
I was about 6-foot-3 my freshman year of high school, and after the summer, I was about 6-foot-8. It all happened so fast. I went into the summer being tall, and when I came back, I was a giant. My knees, man, they were throbbing all the time. I couldn't sit in the car for long stretches; my knees felt like they were going to explode.
I played all sports coming up in Texas. I played basketball, football, baseball, ran track. All through high school I did all of that.