Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie takes a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Q: Why do you like the big stage and the big moments?
A: I wouldn’t even necessarily say like it’s about me loving it. I think so many people are scared of it, that when somebody embraces it and does not care, there’s a certain power in that. I know that I’ve worked harder than, if not all, then most guys. I know that I’m better in terms of maybe playing one-on-one, etcetera, than a lot of guys. So I don’t feel like I’m not going to make the shot. There’s not a fear there, and I’m also not scared of the consequences of missing either. I’ve missed ’em before and had people say I sucked and that I was selfish and all this other stuff — yada, yada, yada down the line. So, not being swayed by the noise allows me to just go out there and make whatever decision I feel is best at the time.

Q: How does your on-court mentality compare with boyhood idol Kobe Bryant?
A: I’ve heard he’s crazy, I heard he’s maniacal. I’m less maniacal, I’m more like evil genius. I feel like, if I know everything that you’re gonna do before you do it, then like every move that you like is just playing chess. I’m just luring you into whatever it is that I want to happen. And so it’s constantly a game of, “OK, I make you think this, you’re gonna do that, I counter it.” So I’m less so like a maniacal I-can-impose-my-will type of person, I’m much more like, “All right, anything that you can possibly think of, not only have I thought of it, but I have a counter for it, so I’m just waiting for you to make your move,” and that’ll dictate how I decide to go about it.

Q: Do you play chess?
A: Yeah, a little bit. I won’t say like a master or anything like that, but I think I’m pretty solid.

Q: Did playing chess help you on the court?
A: I think everything that you can apply or take lessons from can help you on the court. And obviously, you can’t predetermine everything in basketball, it’s a game of anticipation, so you’re reading tendencies and all that, ’cause if you predetermine, you can run yourself into trouble. It’s more so just like understanding what they like to do and playing this long game of anticipation.

Q: What is the biggest obstacle or adversity you have overcome?
A: Beyond the knee reconstruction [in 2014], which is obviously glaring, I would just say at every level everybody’s telling me what I couldn’t do. I don’t care what anybody says, man, you hear that noise. And even for the most confident people, it weighs on you. It didn’t present itself in me in necessarily like doubt, but it’ll present just like a weight, like an anger. A lot of people can use that as fuel and some people view anger as a burden. Even, for example, the reason I get mad at refs and things like that, it’s derived in what I feel to be or what I take as disrespect, because that’s been how my life has gone, and so that’s a trigger for me.

Q: When you suffered your devastating knee injury at Colorado, did you feel your career could be over?
A: Initially, no. When the first MRI come back, yes. After they did the actual surgery and talked about the extensive repair that was done, they kind of were like, “Hey, you won’t probably return to high-level basketball for a full year, if at all, in terms of regaining that same level of explosiveness and coordination” and all that stuff. So I sat there, and I was pretty distraught.

Q: You turned to Russ Paine, the physical therapist who helped Adrian Peterson return, and you were back in seven months.
A: Russ did a great job rehabbing, credit to the surgeon [Armando Vidal] did a phenomenal job, everybody at Colorado who helped me in the initial stages of recovery.

Q: Why do you think you’ve been disrespected?
A: When I was a kid, they used to say like my nonchalant attitude is because I was from Cali, Cali makes you soft, like you hear that as a basketball player. Then, “He’s too small,” then, “He’s not strong enough,” then “not athletic enough,” then it’s, “Well, he hurt his knee.” … It’s just always something, and at every point in time and every turn, obviously I’ve been able and fortunate to prove people wrong. … I’m sitting here like, “But if I’m winning in practice, if I was that bad, then stop me. If I’m not good, then show me.” But if you can’t show me that I’m not good, then why the f— would I believe that?

Q: So you have played angry for a while, right?
A: S–t, I lived angry for a while, and not in a destructive way, but just you hold on to some of that s–t and you gotta learn to let some of that go too, because it’s not healthy to be angry all the time. It’s part of life.

Q: You never doubted yourself?
A: Doubt came much more when I was younger. But when you go through all these things when you’re younger, and you go through people telling you you’re not good since you were in seventh grade, eventually it becomes white noise. It’s gonna hurt a 12-year-old kid a lot more than it’s gonna hurt a 26-year-old man. And if you’ve been saying it for 14 years? Like if I had listened at 12, I wouldn’t be here.

Q: Why do you think you’re so comfortable in your own skin?
A: That all comes from the same childhood, the doubt, the disrespect, all that stuff. It’s either going to crush you or it’s gonna make you go inside that shell and be like, “Who are you? What makes you tick?” You have to know yourself so well and be able to put it on whatever display you want to put it on and be confident in that and be fine with it. When I come in here and I’m like, “Yo, I want to talk about blockchain technology” or something, if they laugh and say I’m a nerd, if that hurt my feelings every time they said it, then I couldn’t be me. But if I don’t care if you call me that, I don’t care if you laugh about it. This is what I’m passionate about. I like blockchain, I like cooking food and slow roasting a prime rib for Thanksgiving, and whatever else that you might find awkward or weird or whatever, then I’m me. And so now, what can you say to me? I work harder than you, I know I can get my shot off, now it’s about just making the shot. And if I miss, good job, you made me miss, or I just smoked it or whatever it is. It’s part of life.

Q: Maybe that’s why you’re friends with Jarrett Allen, because he doesn’t care when people call him a nerd.
A: Bingo. Jarrett’s a lot like my little brother, if my little brother was 7-foot and played basketball.

Q: How did your friendship with Kyrie Irving begin?
A: We actually played each other when we were in high school one time. His team killed mine. And we ended up reconnecting in All-Star Skills Challenge in 2018, we laughed about the high school game.

Q: In 25 words or less, describe Coach Kenny Atkinson.
A: Basketball junkie … players coach … that’s four [words] … gym rat, six … great guy, eight … a little maniacal, 11 … truly cares about his players, 16.

Q: In what way is he a little maniacal?
A: Well, he’s gonna be here at 6 a.m. and be sending me clips at like 1 or something like that, I’m like, “Coach, go to sleep!” ’Cause it’ll be a basic clip, it won’t even be something that’s like end-of-the-world or this late-game situation, if you did this we woulda won. It’ll be like, “I think you coulda thrown the pocket pass with your left hand in the second quarter with eight minutes to go.” And you’re like, “Coach, you coulda told me this tomorrow.”

Q: Is this a Nets town now?
A: (Laugh) In terms of the fabric of the city, like no, I mean, the Knick stuff runs deep. Nobody ever said like we were going to take over the city, right? All the stuff that I’ve ever said to Knicks fans was just based in honesty. I never told them, “Hey, we’re gonna outsell you guys,” or we’re gonna do some yada, yada, yada that takes away from the history of the Knicks. No. What I said was, “Our team is better than yours.” And they lost it. And I was like, “Guys … we are.”

Q: You said that when?
A: I said that last year.

Q: And what would you say this year?
A: Well, we’re still better than them. They’re not a very good team right now. I hope they do well in the future and whatnot, and I hope they’re the second-best team in the entire Eastern Conference, obviously us being one. But I don’t have any specific ill will towards the Knicks.

Q: What was it like when you were toiling with the D-League Grand Rapids Drive and Windy City Bulls?
A: Grand Rapids wasn’t fun, just from a standpoint of it just kind of felt like Detroit just kind of put me there and kind of just left me there [December 2014-February 2016]. Windy City [at the start of 2016 season], as much as it sucked to be cut and it hurt to be cut, my coach at the time, Nate Loenser, he started this whole trajectory up. He sat down prior to the D-League season, and was like, “Look, I know you played well in training camp, I know you don’t want to be here, I know you feel like you should be on the team, I feel like you should be on the team too.” And basically it was kind of like, “If you respect me, I’ll respect you, and I’ll let you play your way outta here,” and he gave me the ball, allowed me to play, and that was the first time in a long time where somebody had just basically been like, “Hey, I know you’re good, go do your thing.” It took the cuffs off.

Q: What is your best NBA moment?
A: Because of my vindictive nature, I’d say the two game-winners versus Detroit, those were fun (smile).

Q: If you could play one-on-one with any player in NBA history, who would it be?
A: It would have to be Mike [Michael Jordan]. If not him, the list would still be pretty short — Kobe in his prime, KD [Kevin Durant], who I haven’t been able to play for obvious reasons.

Q: If you could pick the brain of any player in NBA history, who would it be?
A: Magic Johnson. Best point guard of all time. And just a maestro with the basketball. Saw things clearly before they happened.

Q: What would you ask him?
A: Just what he sees.

Q: If you were NBA Commissioner you would …
A: Let Spencer tokenize his contract.

Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?
A: Muhammad Ali, his confidence and outspokenness; Bruce Lee, his mentality; I don’t know much about Bo Jackson in terms of his career and stuff, but I know he’s recognized like the greatest athlete potentially of all time and some of his folklore is absolutely insane — like him backflipping out of a waist-deep pool.

Q: You liked Bruce Lee’s “Be like water” quote.
A: One of his other quotes is, “To know isn’t enough, you must apply,” and all that other type of stuff. And that was just mainly from the standpoint of not to be complacent. Just ’cause I know I’m one of the best, obviously everybody else still don’t, so you gotta continue to go out there and prove it.

Q: When did your affection for sneakers begin?
A: I used to draw shoes as a kid. If my shoes can help you be a fraction of a percent better, you know the type of pride that you take in something like that?

Q: Tell me about your son, Elijah.
A: He’s a good kid, man, he’s always happy, but he definitely wants what he wants — he’s a strong-willed dude. So it’s funny, ’cause he likes to try to push the limits a little bit. But he’s 19 months old, he’s not smarter than me yet (smile).

Q: Tell me about your grandmother, Goey.
A: She was the source of unconditional love. You have those times where you bump heads with your parents because they want you to do this, or you want to do that, or whatever it is, and that’s just kind of life. She was just always like that safe place, and obviously she was the matriarch of the family, my mom’s best friend.

Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Barack Obama; Dr. Sebi [herbalist Alfredo Bowman]; my grandmother.

Q: Favorite actor?
A: Will Smith.

Q: Favorite actress?
A: Scarlett Johansson.

Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Drake.

Q: Favorite meal?
A: Chicken fried rice.

Q: Favorite book?
A: The Bible.

Q: Favorite Brooklyn things?
A: Juliana’s pizza.

Q: What drives you now?
A: When you’re a kid and you dream of this, you dream about winning championships, and just kind of being in the atmosphere and making the NBA and accomplishing all these great things for a career. Now, understanding the business of basketball, you still have those dreams of winning a title, it’s part of the reason I stayed. I didn’t want to be the guy that waited till he was 35 and then was the 13th man on the championship team. Beyond that, just my son, too. Every step that I take, every decision that I make helps prepare him for his life, for the obstacles that he’ll go through. The easier I can make his life as long as he remains a good person, then the better I’ve done my job.

Q: Twenty years from now, what do you see yourself doing?
A: Being a dad. I just want to go home and be a dad. I want to disappear when I’m done.