Why AC chose abstinence

I made a decision…I resolved not to be with a woman until I married. My convictions were obvious when I joined the Lakers but not proven, so a few players taunted, teased, tempted and tried me to see if I'd hold up to my standards to save sex for marriage. "Hey wait 'til you see what's waiting for you," they said… "How much do you want to bet A.C. can't stay away from so and so?" one said. "I'll bet twenty dollars he can't," said another. Still another piped up with, "Count me in for a hundred dollars." "You won't last two months in the NBA," one of the guys told me. Some even threatened to set me up with women they knew. "Let's see how strong you really are," they said. Eventually they got tired of the game and started believing in me.

I always have a choice to make. If I see some woman or even a TV commercial, I don't have to look. I can treat women well even if they don't treat themselves well. They can call my room, but the same hand that picks up the phone can hang it up, too. It's my choice. I choose what hairstyle I wear, what clothes I wear, how much I'm going to work out. I exercise my power of choice to keep control of my own body, my own life.

Abstinence is a choice, and it's a choice every day, one day at a time. The decisions you make today will directly impact your tomorrow. Choosing abstinence means choosing to take control of your destiny.

I plan on being married and having a family, and I'll be able to offer my wife something I have never offered to another woman - and I'm excited about that. She's worth the wait, and you know what…so am I. And so are you.

Even if you haven't been abstinent in the past, you can still control your future decisions. You can't change the past, you can't change the consequences from that mistake. But you can move on, and you can choose to not repeat that mistake.