“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I love traveling. I love basketball.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I want everything and anything I can get from this game. Because in reality, I owe this game my life.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I have the natural ability to pick things up a lot faster than I think most people would.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“That’s something I embrace, just doing stuff not many people can do.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“One of my goals is to be Defensive Player of the Year. One of my goals is to be Rookie of the Year. And one of my long-term goals is to be walking across that stage with a jacket on and a nice little patch on it that says ‘Hall of Fame.’”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Chicago is a great city.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I want to put myself in the best position to stay out on the floor.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Whenever I guard a guard, I don’t want to reach too much, but I will poke at the ball once to get him thinking.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Anthony Davis’ lateral movement is one of a kind.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“A lot of playcalls are for the corner 3. I thought that’s something I should really work on.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“With that corner 3, it’s the highest percentage shot in the game.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Although there’s no one I really pattern my game after, I am a firm believer in stealing stuff from other people.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I have game-changing defensive abilities.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“If you look at all the great shot-blockers of all time, they had length, and they had instincts. Even when you look at guards, like Dwyane Wade. He’s one of the best shot-blocking guards ever, and he has great instincts. He’s kind of cat-like.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’m looking forward to playing against LeBron.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Some kids have lifelong dreams of wanting to play in the NBA.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I don’t want to take away from anything from my time at Texas. I think it was actually pretty darn special.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“My whole thing is if you want to do it, then do it. Kobe told me this, but he said, ‘You don’t wanna lay all your eggs in one basket, but you wanna lay all your eggs in one basket.’ If you wanna do something and be great at it, that’s what you’re going to have to specialize in. Just take it and run.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“There was a lot of other people that had their own song or their name in a verse in high school. I was just like, ‘To stamp my high school career, I gotta get my name in a song.’”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.’”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Coach Smart did a great job of just letting me come to terms with myself as a basketball player and a person.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’d say the best thing my parents passed on to me was to let me make my own mistakes and figure out on my age how to kind of see the world on my own.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I credit a lot of my success to being from Harlem, growing up there.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Coach Smart, he’s given me so much freedom to sort of grow into who I was.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“There are things that I need to do better, and I need to get to a point where it’s hard to not have me on the court.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Having the tools and the intangibles mean nothing unless you are surrounded by the best.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I love fast breaks, and I love playing full-court basketball, but offensively in the half court, I kind of take my time, let guys cut, and let the defense move. Then, if I have a move, I’ll go. If not, I’ll just hand it off to a teammate.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’m not a guy who is out there looking to get his game going or put up shots; I’m out there to win, and I don’t care if I’m playing three or 30 minutes.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I truly have New York embedded in my blood.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I don’t know why, but I don’t really get too nervous before games or practices or whatever.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’m going to be a guy who can defend a bunch of different positions.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Being told to get out, not being afraid to fail and try new things – that really makes a difference.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“At first, Coach Smart was big on not overwhelming me. But I told him, ‘My mental capacity is a lot more than you think it is. I can take it.’”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Absolutely, I believe that I have the tools, the presence, and all the make-up to be the No. 1 pick.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“What makes me unique is my ability to adapt to different situations and switch onto smaller guards and stay out there. Another component to being out there on the floor – and this is something that I learned as my college career went on – was staying on the floor, literally, comes down to not picking up fouls.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“As far as what teams need and what I need, I’m open to anything a team has to say about how they envision me in their future.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“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.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Rebounding in practice and rebounding in games are two completely different things.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I like to think of myself as a pretty good shot blocker.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“There’s a rumor that my great-grandmother was 6’7”. I don’t know if it’s necessarily true, but that’s a big woman.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Whatever the team needs, I’ll do.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“The biggest misconception about my game is my love for it. This is what I want to do. I owe this thing my life. There’s no other way around it.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’m super competitive.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Both offensively and defensively, the presence that I have is pretty profound.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I’m really considering all the schools. It’s not fair for me to only look at certain… programs just because they had players that are at my stature.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“Tony Bradley is pretty good.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“As much as I hate that it’s a business decision – like, I’m just picking a school – it really is a business decision. I really don’t see anything wrong with waiting it out.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“I don’t really want to be cocky when I say this, but I really feel I can be one of the best rim protectors in the league, you know, as a rookie.”
― Mohamed Bamba
“My shot-blocking ability, it’s really second to none.”
― Mohamed Bamba
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