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NBA DRAFTJune 25, 2015Jahlil OkaforBROOKLYN, NEW YORK JAHLIL OKAFOR: I'm excited. I'm very excited. I ran into Jerami Grant as I was walking back here. He said, "I'll see you tomorrow." That's somebody I played with on Team USA a few years ago. Joel Embiid texted me last night and said, "See you in Philly." He kind of jinxed me. It's a great feeling. I know some of those guys already, so I'm excited. Q. How shocked were you that you became a Sixer? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I wasn't shocked. I knew I was going to be going to the NBA tonight. I was going to be a top‑five pick, no matter what happened. I wasn't shocked. Q. How can you guys make this happen? For three years in a row the Sixers drafted a center. You guys all need the ball. How can you make this happen? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I don't know, it's not my job to figure out. I'll just go there and work as hard as I can. Q. Big journey for you; you've worked really hard to get to this point. How did you become such a skilled low‑post player? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I think it started with me just always being the tallest player in my age group, which pretty much right away had all the coaches send me right to the block. I've been playing basketball my entire life, and my entire life I've been the tallest guy, and with that being said I've always been in the post. I just got really comfortable in the post. I worked on my craft and watched a lot of film. Q. How familiar are you yourself with Philly? I think one of the things that's neat about the Sports Pavilion, they've got all their teams close to one another. I'm curious your thoughts what that shows about Philly and sports in that city? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I'm not too familiar with Philadelphia. One of my teammates at Duke University, Amile Jefferson, is from there, and always talking about it's the best city and all that other stuff. I'm from Chicago, so we always argue. But I'm excited to get to know the city a little better. Q. For a long time you were the consensus No.1 player in the nation, a lot of people had you going No.1 overall for many, many months. Now going No.3 overall, does that kind of put a chip on your shoulder, disappoint you at all? How do you feel about that fact? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I can't be disappointed. I'm in the NBA living my dream. I've been getting a lot of criticism. People in my circle, we're just going to take it with a grain of salt. It's easy to shoot at somebody when they're at the top of the hill. I've been pretty much at the top all throughout high school, all throughout college, so I'm expecting it. Q. What was your dialogue with the Lakers? Did they give you any expectation at all that they were really interested in you? And in that sense were you surprised that they went a different direction? JAHLIL OKAFOR: No, they never gave me any answer, as much as we tried to get an answer from Minnesota, as much as we tried to get an answer from the Lakers, nobody ever answered. I didn't know what to expect. It was hard for me to go to sleep last night. Q. I was intrigued to hear you talk about being the tallest player, being sent to the post. Some people regard being sent to the post as almost being sent to the principal's office or something. When you're alone in the gym working out, what shots do you take that you enjoy working on outside of the structure of an organized team situation? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I shoot all kinds of shots. I don't just stay on the block and just do lay‑ups and dunk when I'm in the gym by myself. I shoot a lot of bank shots, a lot of shots around the perimeter. There's a lot of things I like to work on, but I know my bread and butter when it comes down to it is in the post. Q. You're known as a low‑post scorer, and that's what people talk the most about. What other things do you think you do especially well on the court? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I think I'm a great teammate. I became a better talker on the floor, being at Duke, being in leadership with Coach K, and I think I got better defensively as the season progressed. I've been working on all aspects of my game. Q. Is that kind of a retro Motown look you were going for tonight? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I had a lot of help. Thank you for the compliment, but I had a lot of help. Didn't have much time these past two months to come up with a draft suit, so I had somebody help me. Q. Obviously there are a lot of low‑post players on the Sixers team and you being a low‑post player, there's a chance you might have to work on extending your range a little bit out to the perimeter. Is that something you're comfortable with, something you've already been working on? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I've been playing basketball my entire life, so I feel comfortable doing what I'm asked of. Like I said, my bread and butter is in the post. That's where I've always been and there's where I'm most effective. Q. Is there a post player you pattern your game after, number one? And number two, are you comfortable with the rebuilding process that could take a long time, maybe being the centerpiece of it at this point? JAHLIL OKAFOR: I'm definitely used to being the centerpiece of a team. That's what I've become accustomed to. That's what I've been working so hard for. But there are two guys that play my position that I enjoy watching and that's Tim Duncan and also Hakeem Olajuwon. Q. You mentioned Coach K. Is there anything you can tell us, any advice he gave you to help make the transition to the NBA? JAHLIL OKAFOR: One thing he said, make sure that my heart was in it.  He felt the type of person I was, if I was going to do something, then my heart had to be in it. If that was the case, then I would go all out. So that was one piece of advice he gave me. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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