Quotes from Serge Ibaka

When kids start playing basketball, they all think about scoring.

When you are a young player in the NBA, sometimes you don't pay much attention to some of the cities you visit, especially in cold places like Toronto. But when you spend more time in the league you learn more about the cities you play in, and learn how to appreciate them more.

That's where I get my toughness in mind. From my background when I was young, everything I've been through, everything I was going through in my life. It helped me a lot, it helped me to be strong.

I've been learning when to block shots against who I'm playing. I'm not just going to leave a shooter to go block shots.

There was a complete rupture in my left calf.

My dad used to play basketball, now he gets to see me in the NBA Finals.

I think God put me on this earth to play basketball.

In the playoffs, it's win or you go home.

I'd read about NBA players in magazines when I was growing up in Congo, but I had never actually seen what NBA basketball looked like because we didn't have access to a satellite for TV.

Ask anybody from Africa which country is the best in terms of dressing, and they'll tell you Congo.

I have to stay hydrated. It's very important for anyone, but especially athletes! We sweat a lot, and we need it.

I can shoot, or I can roll, I can finish inside, I can take two-point shots, I can switch on defence and I can protect the paint.

I had a poster of Kevin Garnett hanging in my room. He was one of my inspirations when I was young. I was at my friend's house - he had a lot of money, so sometimes I'd go to his place to watch some NBA action. I remember the first time I saw Kevin Garnett, I just felt something in my body: 'This feels like me.'

I played football when I was a kid, it is such a fun sport to play, I fancied myself as a midfielder until I grew too tall and discovered basketball.

My father was always pushing me to become a basketball player. In Africa, when you're a kid, every kid loves to play soccer, and I loved playing soccer. But my dad didn't want me playing soccer. He would joke, 'C'mon, man, you're too tall!' Then he promised me, 'If you start playing basketball, I'm going to give you my jersey.'

It's always pressure in sport. It was a lot of pressure since Day 1 in Orlando, and it's going to be always pressure, but I think those pressures make us better.

LeBron is not a good defender.

By the time I was 19 years old, I had lived in five different cities in four different countries and three different continents.

To know how I am very important to my team on defense, how my teammates need me on defense, it means a lot to me.

It's a long story, my life, growing up with my dad, my mom when she died, everything. I had bad moments in my life, my dad going to prison, I had nothing, and that's where I got my motivation.

I'm mature enough to understand I can find time to do other things without disturbing my focus for basketball.

Without pressure, I'm not going to wake up every day to go work, or do extra shooting, or lifting.

I can play at four or I can play at five and I think I feel more comfortable because I'm flexible to do whatever I want to do.

Everywhere I go I have a lot of friends and family.