Manute Bol was one of the guys who taught me to be bold. To be fierce. To speak intelligently, and speak like you belong.
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.
That's why we play sports, is to compete for championships.
We're going to have tough times. We're going to have five-game losing streaks. Everybody goes through it.
Basketball without Borders made me who I am and it's just something that is such a huge part of my 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
God doesn't put anyone someplace permanently. I am a living testimony to that.
I'll always have a special place in my heart for the city of Denver and the Nuggets as an organization.
To give women more opportunity, women's empowerment is very, very close to my heart.
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.