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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2015

Festus Ezeli

Oakland, California

Q. What are the potential road blocks the team faces and how do you think the guys will respond?
FESTUS EZELI: The road block, let's see. Well, first of all, the good thing about winning a championship is that you can go home and sleep at ease because you know what it takes to get there. So we do know what it takes to get there. We know what the sacrifices are and how hard it was.

So the thing for us as a team the same thing that happened with us last year is we focus on ourselves as a team. We focused on getting better every day. We worked on fundamentals every day. Like we were in a high school practice, we worked on fundamentals so much.

We know what it takes to get there. The road blocks of our team. We just have to keep working hard, and I think the sky's the limit for us.

Q. When we talked over the summer you talked a little about your relationship with Akeem Olajuwon. Talk about what you thought about him as you were growing up and how he inspires you today to be the kind of player you want to be?
FESTUS EZELI: He has the same story as I did coming from Nigeria and not having a basketball background. He played soccer. But what I did know about him is how much hand ball he played and his foot work and his trickery. He was telling me in hand ball you can't dribble and run at the same time, so you have to use the fakes to get your ball to shoot up and stuff like that.

So we got to talking a little bit. We have a pretty good relationship now from being there in South Africa together. My vision of him, I've always thought about him as somebody that came from Nigeria with the same story and became great. After meeting him and talking to him, I have a lot of respect for all the work he put in. He was talking to me about working hard and staying humble and all these different things.

At 54 he's still got it. That's what was crazy. At 54 we were playing one-on-one, and all the fakes and everything, it's unbelievable. So it's very inspiring to see, for sure.

Q. What was the highlight of your off-season? And if you could put a hashtag to describe your season, what would it be and why?
FESTUS EZELI: To describe the season, hashtag team work makes the dream work. That's the part where it became the dream of us all. The highlight of my off-season, you said? The highlight of my off-season is a toss up between the Africa games which was also while we were down there we did a lot of charity work as well and did a lot of things.

I didn't know how much input the NBA had in Africa in terms of charity. In terms of we visited so many orphanages and did camps and things like that. The toss up was between that trip and my trip to Nashville. I took the trophy as well back to my school where I felt like I laid my basketball foundation. While I was there I just celebrated this special moment with people that have supported me throughout my career. So it was a toss-up between both of those.

Q. Festus, you're talking about bringing it back to your college. What were those conversations like with people from those formative days for you?
FESTUS EZELI: Oh, man. They were just proud. People that have seen me through, man, what I called the dark days when I started learning to play. When I went to Vanderbilt, I told Coach Stallings, one of the reasons why I red-shirted my first year was I told him I didn't even know how to be on a team. I had not played sports before.

So, you know, I really did just -- they saw me grow when I was at school there, so people were just proud. They're very happy. Everybody there was like family to me. So it was really good to be a part of that.

One of the things that sticks out in my mind from that trip is I took the trophy on the field, and we were playing against Georgia, and even Georgia fans stand up and they gave me a standing ovation. So it made me feel like it's just bigger than me. It's bigger than just myself. I just felt like I was part of something greater.

Q. Speaking of Vanderbilt, you were an economics major, I think, over there, and you rang the bell at NASDAQ recently. Just curious if you had any interest in finance or whatever interest you had outside of basketball?
FESTUS EZELI: Also, I had an internship with Merrill Lynch when I was in college. I'm an economics major, so I do have an interest in it in the stock market and investing and all that. But right now my focus is basketball.

But, yeah, I do have interest and I will look forward to exploring it later on in my career.

Q. You said you're from Africa; what part?
FESTUS EZELI: I'm from Nigeria.

Q. You're doing a great job. We're watching your decision making and shooting, good job, keep it up.
FESTUS EZELI: Thank you, I will. I will, for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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