{"id":35696,"date":"2020-08-31T10:45:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T08:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.demo.olimpia.iquii.info\/kevin-punter-i-wanted-to-quit-but-ive-dealt-with-challenges-all-my-life-and-now-i-will-be-myself-while-listening\/"},"modified":"2020-08-31T10:45:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T08:45:03","slug":"kevin-punter-i-wanted-to-quit-but-ive-dealt-with-challenges-all-my-life-and-now-i-will-be-myself-while-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olimpiamilano.com\/en\/kevin-punter-i-wanted-to-quit-but-ive-dealt-with-challenges-all-my-life-and-now-i-will-be-myself-while-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Punter: “I wanted to quit, but I’ve dealt with challenges all my life, and now I will be myself while listening”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Punter is a son of the Bronx, he comes from New York, a city where basketball is played on every street corner and which has also given Olimpia many valuable players<\/strong>, from Arthur Kenney to Albert King, from Charles Jenkins to Jamel McLean in more recent times. Punter, however, had a different evolution: He grew up in the playgrounds (“I used to play from sunrise to sunset,” he says), but then went to North Carolina and emerged in college only during his last year, at Tennessee, when his coach was Rick Barnes, who at the University of Texas helped the career ok Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, PJ Tucker and many more.<\/p>\n

-How was growing up in New York as a basketball player?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was dope. Everybody knows the all the five boroughs Hoopers, pretty much everybody knows each other and every summer we play in a bunch of different tournaments, in different parks, different environments all over the city. It’s been dope just being in that kind of environment. There were a bunch of dogs, so it was definitely fun growing up. I remember going to the park and my mom telling me to be back in the house before dark. Me? I just wasn\u2019t listening, just stay outside and my dad had to give me. Just things like that. I was always outside playing basketball all day long\u201d.<\/p>\n

-Your mom was the one who had to convince you to keep playing. Is it true?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not that she convinced me, she kind of told me to think about it some more. I was going through a lot of negatives in life and I was really thinking about quit. Saying you know what? Maybe it is not for me, maybe I\u2019d just stop. I told her: I\u2019m done. And she called me back and said if you still want to quit, I will be with you 100 percent. But she didn\u2019t want me to think emotionally, she wanted me to reflect, and think it thorough before making rushed decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

-What happened when you really raised your game during your last season at Tennessee?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of work, I also changed my shot going into my senior year. Playing for Rick Barnes, my mindset, my work ethic has always been high. But going into my senior year I knew I had to really pick it up some more, I wanted potentially looking to the NBA, so I dedicated that summer to just work, working, working and trying to get better. That all summer I just didn\u2019t take a jump-shot outside the paint. Coach Barnes broke down my mechanics and he just helped me start from the scratch. It took all summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Since you have won three different cups in Europe do you see yourself as a winner?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve won my all career, some people think otherwise because I haven\u2019t done it at the EuroLeague level, but I mean it wasn\u2019t my fault. I\u2019ve done it at the level I was playing. This is my fifth year, the second year playing at the EuroLeague level, I\u2019ve done pretty good. For me, I just keep working, I\u2019ve won earlier in my career, I want to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n