A Quote by Pascal Siakam
When my dad passed away, the NBA became a major priority for me. It became bigger than just loving basketball; I suddenly had extra motivation. I was willing to do absolutely anything I had to do to get to the NBA.
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In the early '80s there was a big gap between the NBA and the international game and when we started making our careers here in the NBA, obviously, we became better players. When we used to play each other on the international level, that gap became smaller and smaller.
I know people that was playing basketball better than me. If they were in the NBA, they could be All-Stars, those people. They just never had the opportunity to go play professional basketball in Europe.
My diary became more than a place to record daily events. It became a friend, the paper that it was made of was ready and willing to accept anything and everything I had to say.
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.
I love basketball so much, I love playing it. I just never thought I could make it to college, make it to the NBA or stand up here today in front of you guys and be an NBA MVP. It’s just a surreal feeling, and I had so much help, so many people believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself.
The NBA requires that one person is the acting owner, the one person they can get on the phone and is accountable for anything that happens. That's why my dad started taking me to NBA board of governors meetings in 1995; you have to be approved as the owner.
It's a luxury to play. I get to play basketball for a living. I'm a lucky guy and I'm thankful for everything I have and what I get to do. I realize how many people would give their left foot to just play one game in the NBA. This is the NBA!
I always felt that I had to leave a legacy on the African continent. As I was only the third player to come to the NBA from Africa, I felt I had to do my best to recruit more young Africans to come and play in the NBA - and also find a way to bring the NBA to Africa.
When I come home, I'm not a basketball player, but "dad". While everyone sees me as an NBA player, to my boys, I'm just "dad" and that's very important.
When I started I had no knowledge of films whatsoever. I was an engineering major at Stanford. And I found out as a senior that they had two film critics on the Stanford Daily, and they got free passes to all the theaters in Palo Alto. So I thought, I'll do that, and I became a film critic. And then I became interested in films. But I had no time to study anything in that area because I was a senior, just finishing up as engineering.
I thought I would make it (to the NBA). I believed that I would make it. But I had a Plan B. I was going to get my Master's degree at Tulane University had it not worked out. I think the pressure of making it wasn't on me as great as some other players that had no other options. I was going to do something special in life and I wanted to play in the NBA. I had a backup plan but I went full speed ahead with my Plan A.
I've been lucky enough to play on NBA teams I really enjoy, teams where I've liked everybody and had fun, and had that college kind of experience with an NBA team. When you have that, and I don't know that everyone does, but when I've had it, that's what it's all about.
Even before I made my high school team, I'd say I want to be a NBA player, and people laughed at me with, 'Get out of here, you ain't going to be a NBA player. You don't even play basketball.'
Acting became important. It became an art that belonged to the actor, not to the director or producer, or the man whose money had bought the studio. It was an art that transformed you into somebody else, that increased your life and mind. I had always loved acting and tried hard to learn it. But with Michael Chekhov, acting became more than a profession to me. It became a sort of religion.
I've played more park games than NBA games, and I had a 10-year NBA career.
I always tried to be an all-around player. In college, I felt like I needed to add to my game to get to another level, to get to the NBA. The NBA has really turned to positionless basketball, so it was very important to me to have an all-around game so I could stand out in front of other guys.
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