Quotes from Jahlil Okafor

I love LeBron, but Kobe was the first player I actually considered my favorite.

I've always been a Kobe fan; he's one of my favorite players.

My defense is a criticism, but we won a national championship at Duke, so it wasn't that bad.

I've always won. I've won the state championship, national championship, all that stuff.

My father has his master's degree. My uncle does as well.

I never take a day off.

When I found out dairy was an inflammatory, which I had no idea about, I cut that out.

I'm a big fan of black uniforms.

That's always been my interest - things of the unknown.

Ever since third grade - I never even noticed it until after the game - people were telling me how crazy my dad is. I think I'm so locked in when I'm playing on the floor, I only hear him maybe during timeouts or when we're up 20 or 30 and I'm on the bench. But when I'm in the game, I don't hear him.

Coming out of college, I got a lot of notoriety for being the old-school center.

Shaquille O'Neal was probably my favorite athlete growing up. I loved how dominant and unstoppable he was, but also his charisma off the court. He was someone I gravitated toward.

One time, I palmed some medicine balls, just because people wanted to see if I could do it.

He's been the greatest father for me. Going around the streets of Chicago with my dad, people always tell me they can't believe how much my dad has matured. Or, 'You wouldn't believe how your dad used to be.' There's always lots of words about how much he's changed.

I like playing in the post, so a system that plays to my strengths is important.

Being an NBA player, a lot of stress comes with that: realizing there's a lot of pressure on me and accepting that for what it is, realizing that I might need help, I might need somebody to talk to, accepting that there's nothing wrong with that.

In eighth grade, I pretty much didn't want to pass. I was 6'8'.' I was always bigger and stronger. I was getting triple-teamed, and the results weren't good. I wasn't helping my team. I was forcing shots. Then I started passing it out to my team, and they started hitting shots and slashing, and that's when things opened up for me.

I've had a lot of struggles in the NBA, so to have some type of success, it just feels good, and makes you want more.

Being in the city of New Orleans, meeting the people, it's been nothing but hospitality and a lot of love.

My dad is the opposite of me. He's so outgoing and so loud.

I always knew I wanted to be in the NBA and play myself in a video game. That was my goal when I was a kid.

I have videos of me playing basketball in diapers.

I've been working on all my aspects of my game.

My aunt, who plays the role of my mother now, she got her Ph.D.