JOHN LUCAS ON...

Immature pro athletes

``We grow up as adult athletes, but we don't grow up as adults. And then we take all that competitive spirit we have developed, all of that self-centeredness, and we try to live our life away from sports like that. And it can't be done. When the game is over, you have a hole that needs to be filled up. What you try to do is get the biggest house, the biggest car, the biggest this, the biggest that, and you're still empty.''

The impact of drugs

``Drugs, when you put them in your system, attack your character. They make you violate your values.''

Drug rehabilitation

``A lot of the people who come in to hear the 12 steps [of recovery] from me don't want to hear about God. But the first step has God in it, the second step's got God in it.... When I talk about recovery I don't talk about God. I talk about believing in something greater than you and caring about other people, then you get some God.''

Love

``Athletes need love. I try to teach them to love themselves because the love they get from other people may be temporary. The love they get for themselves can be always.''

Spirituality

``I think there is a big difference between religiosity and spirituality. I think religiosity is sometimes for people who are afraid to go to hell, and spirituality is for those of us who have been to hell and had to come back.''