Shane Battier: ‘LeBron James did something twice that Jordan I don’t think could have done once. He won two NBA titles with Shane Battier as his starting power forward’

Shane Battier: We were very, very poor. I was the only child in the town where there was a black dad and a white mom. So, in primary school with 500 children, I was the only black child. I got the pick on the day of photography – everyone else got the comb. Martin Luther King Day was expected to learn everything about black culture at the dawn of civilization. And I was taller than anyone else. So I was always the kid who had to carry a birth certificate to Little League matches with him. I was overtaken wherever I went – mixed, tall, poor. The only place I really felt at home was kickball, dodgeball, basketball, baseball, all the sports. And when I helped my friends win, I realized that I am not a poor child, a mixed child, a tall child. I was just a kid who helped my friends win. I didn’t care what I did or how I saw it. What I cared about was that we won and did I help my friends win? So I was going to do anything that it took – anything that needed to make my friends look good and make sure we won. I took that lesson from kindergarten. It was born out of despair. It just came from – I want to be loved. I want to be accepted. That’s what put the dog in me. It’s just intense and delusional, and it’s all of those things. ” -via YouTube / June 8, 2025