"What you are as a person is far more  important than what you are as a basketball player"

This quote is trying to say that you as a person describes yourself more than what you are as a player. When you are more than what you are as a famous person it expresses you and people actually know how you are. When you're just a player in front of a audience and people just staring they don't know how you really are. They think you're just a famous basketball player who only knows how to play basketball and don't know how your real life is. The audience doesn't know how you live or how you actually are but you do know how you are. Everybody has feelings and lives a certain way and other people may know how you live and how you are but other people may not know. If you're a athlete and you're know by thousands of people those people don't know how you are they just see you as a perfect athlete that has no problems or has a perfect life. In the real world athletes do have issues like us people that are not famous they probably have a worse life than us. For example, social media is very hateful especially with famous people some people like to bring other people down and tell them stuff and maybe the famous people act like they don't care but they probably do. That't why it's always good to be yourself and not what other people think you are.