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I was honestly more talented in soccer than in basketball. I don't think I'd have gone anywhere in soccer. But I think I was more talented in soccer.
I used to get the question in Houston which was like 'What would you do if you had Shaq?' My answer was 'I would give Shaq the ball 100 times a game.'
People hear 'Africa' and they think about charitable commercials, or safari tours and animals. It's our responsibility to help change that perspective.
Scouting is like CIA work and investigative work. You create a lot of stuff and try a lot of stuff. Some works and some doesn't. I try to get creative.
I didn't think the worlds of theater and basketball intersected. I thought the Venn diagram would be one person: me. As it turns out, there are a few of us.
Basketball is sort of an interesting sport that, you know, the top player on your team makes so much more of an impact than the top player in any other sport.
I believe in strong civil liberties and a government that intervenes if and only if there is a structural failure that private actions generally cannot solve.
I didn't have, like, any way to penetrate organized sports. So I decided at that point that I had to be rich. If I was rich I could just buy a team and run it.
Ultimately you want to optimize championship probability over some window. But if you literally take that to the logical extreme, you would be doing crazy stuff.
You don't have to be a leader of a big organization. You can be a leader of your brother, of a young kid, of your community. That way you affect life, someway, somehow.
You have to figure out that balance between younger players and veteran players, star players, and All-Star players, really a team effort. And then you have to be lucky.
I've spent a lot of time in the United States and Canada and I am grateful for the opportunities that I've been given by people, and the game of basketball, and the NBA.
Africa has proven to produce some of the greatest athletes in the world, and it's a joy to be able to help grow that talent and create a space for African youth to learn.
As an NBA executive, I'm always looking for untapped potential. As a proud native of Nigeria, I believe that Africa is one of the world's greatest resources in that area.
To be honest, women just make us smarter. They make us better. I've noticed that in my workplace. I've noticed that at home. I've noticed that in my past experiences in life.
I focus on very few things in life - my work, my family, my friends. Those things are important to me and I pay good attention to them, and everything else just comes and goes.
I don't really watch any TV. I'll glance at the TV sometimes if my wife's watching 'Empire' or 'Scandal.' I'll sit with her for an episode. But I don't have a TV show that I watch.
You go for the best talent available, wherever it is. You fish it out. That's how I've scouted all my career. Doesn't matter where it is - international, domestic, college, anywhere.
One of Giants of Africa's fundamental mottos is - Dream Big. We believe that basketball can be used as a tool to educate and develop youth around the world to accomplish their dreams.
Thank you to Josh Harris for the trust he has placed in me to lead the 76ers. I am humbled by the challenge and will work tirelessly to win the hearts of Philadelphia's legendary fans.
Nelson Mandela saw the potential of Africa and dedicated his life to changing the world in which we live while inspiring a movement towards social justice, peace and equal human rights.
As far as I can tell, the baseball teams are run pretty darn well. I'm sure there's some better and worse, but I don't ever see a baseball team anymore and go, 'They're absolutely insane.'
I have a mother. I have a wife. I have a daughter. I have sisters. I can see just in my experience in my life, where sometimes they have been just put to the side in some of the things that they do.
Players want to go where the team wins and where the team has a great culture, ownership and all of that. It doesn't matter where you are. It really doesn't matter, you have to perform and you have to win.
That always seemed the coolest thing to me. How do you use num'bers to predict things? It was like a cool way to use numbers to be better than other people. And I really liked being better than other people.
If there's a great opportunity, obviously we're going to do it early. But the main thing is, you want to do great moves when they are available. But often the best move is not a move that is done right away.
I concluded that I'm a competitor. And, whatever happens, you keep leading. You can't fear anybody. Why? Because at the end of the day, I might not be in this job a couple of years from now. I'm here to win.
If you have an intuition of something but no hard evidence to back it up, you might kind of sort of go about putting that intuition into practice, because there's still some uncertainty if it's right or wrong.
You have to be unique in your own ways and the ways that you play to find a way to win. You can't always go with the trend that's going on. Sometimes you have to create the trend yourself and be confident in it.
My son the other day was looking and found a grey hair and started crying because he thought I was going to die. That's a true story. So I had to assure him that a couple grey hairs doesn't mean I'm going to die.
James Harden changed my life. An entire page could be dedicated just to James. He not only transformed my life but also revolutionized the game of basketball - and continues to do so - like almost no one has before.
Look at the teams that have been successful in the NBA. Yes, you have big, glamorous cities like L.A. But Miami has won, and so has San Antonio. Oklahoma City is a very successful team. They're not the biggest markets.
When you talk about goals, you look at your team last year and you want to move the meter a little bit. You don't want to go back and be the same team that you were last year, so we have tried to get better in some ways.
I did have that happen when I was with the Celtics once - I was there late and no one woke me up when I fell asleep in a chair. But at the Celtics they didn't like me as much, so they let me snooze away and made fun of me.
Most kids in Africa don't start playing basketball until they are 13 or 14 years old. This puts them at a disadvantage because they lack the instincts and must work harder to develop the skills and habits formed at an early age.
Everyone mentions the fact that I am the first African GM. I think it means nothing unless you impact people in Africa. That's what we're trying to try to continue to do - impact the game and make an impact on people over there.
I wish more people knew Steve Howe the way I knew him. His struggles in life were well documented, but he always tried to fight through them and I will always respect that. My thoughts and prayers go out wife Cindy and his family.
The only time being in the middle class hurts you is if you're in the middle class with players who are on bad contracts. If you're in the middle class and all your players are on good contracts then I don't think that's a problem.
I always say in my camps in Africa, in everything we do, 'My name is Masai and I'm from Nigeria.' My name is Masai and I'm from Nigeria. It's plain and simple. If you're from La Loche or you are from Toronto you should be proud of it.
Just because someone lives in a hut, that doesn't mean that isn't a good person, that that person can't do better, that person isn't capable of being great. And just because it's a hut - whatever that means - doesn't mean it's not a home.
I represent a great continent. People ask, Is there pressure on me? I don't feel pressure at all. It's an unbelievable challenge for me, but I feel like I carry the weight of my continent on my shoulders. I want to help the next generation in Africa.
I have all these opinions about the dancers but they should be kept to myself. No one consults me. I keep asking to be invited to the dance tryouts but no one ever allows me there. I'll just say this: My general philosophy is that you can teach them to dance.
You want to win in the NBA you want to build a culture and teams will always do that and try to win. It's cutthroat. All 30 teams want to be that way whether they are rebuilding, have young players, have a style of play. It doesn't matter, everybody wants to win.
As you can probably tell, the push to develop talent in Africa is personal. I grew up there. I played there. I know how much talent there is. We have to concentrate on building facilities, establishing successful leagues and finding investors to help young players.
Frankly, I've had the opportunity to get certain accolades, make it to the conference finals, get awards, all this other stuff that doesn't matter. I'm looking only on championship probability. I just feel like I haven't accomplished much unless I can somehow get that done.
I understand my job and what the job is and what has to be done basketball wise. I do that 24/7 and it's a huge priority for me, but I cannot be in this job and not try to affect the youth of Africa, or the youth around the world, even. Help other people in some kind of way.
He is so true to himself, and so good to other people. Even during tough conversations, I have never worried about him. Because I know Dwane Casey is going to come back tomorrow to try to be better, and I feel the same way. I try to be better, and so I try to be like him that way.
Every GM will tell you it's an instinct. It's an instinct to be patient, to react, or act, or not to do anything at all. It just comes. What I can say is you must have a plan and a goal and a way to do things. At the end of the day, it's an instinct. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad.
Unfortunately, rim protection is really difficult these days with the rules that there are if a guy is getting downhill. It's very hard even if the center is back to handle that. You have to cut off penetration at the start with a strong perimeter and then get the rebound and get out and go.
Kids in Africa start kicking a ball when they are six or seven years old, if not younger. It's like baseball, basketball and football in America. If you're talented, people will find you. That's what happened with soccer. The number of academies has grown rapidly, and people are really into it.