Quotes from Serge Ibaka

Whatever you have, you need to thank God and his blessings. You never know what other people are having trouble with or what is going on with their lives.

My story. My past. I don't want to forget that. I want to think about it and be reminded of it so I can be thankful and appreciative of everything.

Defense, in the game, is something that I just really enjoy. Some people enjoy assisting the ball. Some people like to score, score, score, but to me the first thing that comes up is defense.

One of the things I learned playing on a good team is when the team wins, when you make the playoffs, everybody looks good.

Whatever it takes to help the team to get wins, I'm going to do it.

After winning a championship, I learned something about this: To win a championship, you need everybody. You need everybody to be out there, everybody to have confidence to play at a high level.

Not everybody can do everything at a high level.

All my life, I believe what my mind tells me; what my heart tells me. All the way back to Congo, it has worked for me.

When it's time to dress, I have to think. I have to envision myself in a certain outfit. The night before, when I go to bed, I close my eyes and start thinking about the outfit I'm going to wear tomorrow: all the colors, the fabrics, how it's going to look. It's about putting the whole thing together.

Some foods you may say, 'Oh wow, this is not food.' People actually eat that somewhere. I just want people to really understand that and really appreciate it.

That's one of my favorite things from my dad is his old jersey.

When I say about 'dream is free,' I don't only mean about basketball or to be in the NBA like Serge Ibaka. No. I mean in general, in anything you do. You can do anything you want, anything you dream about. You can do it. You just have to know the dream is free. And dream is free for everybody.

When I was 16 I took the first opportunity I had to play basketball in a different country. I flew to Europe for the first time and found myself in the small town of Macon, in France. That was the first time I lived far away from my people, from my culture. I was young and had to adapt quickly.

You can see when people's locked in and they are ready mentally, and when they are not.

I come from zero and I've had to push myself up to where I am today. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to keep pushing.

I believe in God, and I believe in miracles, and I believe that everything is possible.

I lost my mom when I was seven, and at some point in my life having food it was like a big deal for me because it was not every day.

When I think about power, it's not about having money. It's about changing people's lives, changing people's moods. To me, it's a blessing to have that power.

The most difficult thing with a new shot is if you go two or three games without making it, or you struggle, and people start saying, 'You can't shoot 3s,' or, 'Why do you shoot 3s?'

I learned a lot in Spain.

It wasn't until I moved to Spain that I actually got my first glimpse of the NBA. I'd watch this program called 'NBA Action,' which came on every week and showed clips from different games.

I will never forget where I come from, and my journey to becoming an NBA Champion has been hard to believe.

Most of the time when you're open that's when it's tough to make shots because you try to get some different focus than normally when some guys try to contest your shots.

Basketball did not save my life. God saved my life. It's not basketball. But God saved my life because he blessed me through basketball. He opened the door from basketball.