Drew Gooden quotes:

I'm a social butterfly. Once I get somewhere, I can make myself at ease and start the team bonding and build a relationship with my team, all my teammates, all the coaches, all the coaching staff.

You keep working hard and the wind will carry you where it needs to carry you, in the direction you need to be.

My main focus, whenever I put on a new uniform, was just to provide energy. ... There was one thing I knew I could never mess up, and that was going hard. That's what I really kind of relied on to get me through the transition period between two teams.

There's never a right way to tell somebody that they've been traded.

I've had to overcome a lot of diversity.

I was never a guy who came into a new situation on a team being vocal right away. I kind of monitored the situation, observed the situation and then found my role throughout that process.

When I was young, I kept trying to be in the most helpful place for me, when sometimes, as players, you have to look in the mirror and say, "It's not always going to be comfortable."

I had to learn from an early age to be observant of how to fit in right away and how to make a transition a lot more smoothly by adjusting to a role or filling a role that a team needed.

I wouldn't change my experience for anything. It made me the person I am today. Not just on the court but off the court.

The relationships that I've built and the connections and the network that I have created playing on these multiple teams, playing for these multiple coaches and assistant coaches - I wouldn't give that back for anything, because I believe that's going to prepare me for my next step, whether that's going to be on the floor coaching or in an office doing some type of management work.