Quotes from Mohamed Bamba

I don't want to take away from anything from my time at Texas. I think it was actually pretty darn special.

I got everything I wanted out of Texas. Obviously, you'd love to win more. You'd love to win a national championship and compete at that level. But as far as relationships and development, I couldn't be happier.

The relationships that I've built there, and the people that I've come across, I met some of my best friends in life at the University of Texas.

Chicago is a great city.

Coach Smart did a great job of just letting me come to terms with myself as a basketball player and a person.

I credit a lot of my success to being from Harlem, growing up there.

One thing that drives me crazy is when people tell me that I sound good for an athlete. They be like, 'You don't sound like you from Harlem.'

I need to improve on a lot of different areas. I need to improve on my timing on my shot-blocking, when to go, and when not to go. And there's definitely always room for improvement on my shooting.

You gotta deal with a lot of people, the naysayers... but I've always been the guy who kinda just smiles and laughs at it. I use it as constructive criticism to be honest. Whether they're intentionally trying to be kind of spiteful or not, it's constructive criticism because you can't say there's always truth to it but there's definitely something.

Tony Bradley is pretty good.

Having the tools and the intangibles mean nothing unless you are surrounded by the best.

Absolutely, I believe that I have the tools, the presence, and all the make-up to be the No. 1 pick.

Don't be one foot in and one foot out, especially coming up in New York. It's so easy to lose sight of what you want to do and who you want to be.

There's a significant difference between greed and hunger. When you're greedy, you just want things. That's your only need. But when you're hungry for things, it's a mixture of need and want, which is more logical to me.

It feels great when you work on something so long, and you see signs of growth. When you see it starting to pay off, it's such a great feeling.

A 7-footer who hits a step-back jumper - that's a pretty unicorn-like thing. Or someone who blocks a shot off the top of the backboard, pushes it in transition, and finds a shooter in the corner - that's pretty unicorn-like.

I love traveling. I love basketball.

I watched the Knicks when they were at their worst, and I would always root for them because it's always been in my heart.

I truly believe motivation is internal, but there are so many things that happen externally, and it's hard to not pick that up as motivation.

I honestly think, rebounding, it takes a couple of things to be a good rebounder... It takes motor. It takes effort. It takes a lot of things. It takes game reps.

A unicorn is a mythical creature that you've never seen before. And a unicorn player, he makes plays and does stuff you've never seen before.

I have the natural ability to pick things up a lot faster than I think most people would.

Being told to get out, not being afraid to fail and try new things - that really makes a difference.

Although there's no one I really pattern my game after, I am a firm believer in stealing stuff from other people.