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.

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.

To give women more opportunity, women's empowerment is very, very close to my heart.

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.

We're going to have tough times. We're going to have five-game losing streaks. Everybody goes through it.

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.

We all have the things that we all have to work on, and things we have to get better at.

God doesn't put anyone someplace permanently. I am a living testimony to that.

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 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.

That's why we play sports, is to compete for championships.

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.

Most young kids can't figure out how to shoot.

Sport can change the world.

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.

It's easy to defend, in my opinion, when you play one-on-one.

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.

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'll always have a special place in my heart for the city of Denver and the Nuggets as an organization.

We have to inspire people and give them a sense of hope. We need to bring people along, not ridicule and tear them down.

I memorized every line in Michael Jordan's 'Come Fly with Me.'

Our job is to find players younger, where they are able to play from 11 years old and grow up playing the game. Rather than, you start playing when you are 17 or 18 and you don't get the opportunity to do anything with your career.

I study history. I study the game. I study the NBA and the team I'm working for very, very closely.