Masai Ujiri

“Players want to go where the team wins and where the team has a great culture, ownership and all of that. It doesn't matter where you are. It really doesn't matter, you have to perform and you have to win.”

“Honestly... I've never felt pressure working in basketball. There's no pressure at all. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.”

“Our job is to find out what's the next thing that is going to be advantageous to us and contribute to winning.”

“I was honestly more talented in soccer than in basketball. I don't think I'd have gone anywhere in soccer. But I think I was more talented in soccer.”

“Scouting is like CIA work and investigative work. You create a lot of stuff and try a lot of stuff. Some works and some doesn't. I try to get creative.”

“This is my hobby. Reaching out, getting to know other people's cultures, traveling to other people's countries.”

“Look at the teams that have been successful in the NBA. Yes, you have big, glamorous cities like L.A. But Miami has won, and so has San Antonio. Oklahoma City is a very successful team. They're not the biggest markets.”

“It doesn't matter where you are - it could be Timbuktu - if you win, people will watch, they'll follow and they'll support.”

“I don't know how much of an impact I can have, but you hope you can have some.”

“Two of the most difficult parts of our business is trades and when a player leaves.”

“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.”

“I am confident about who I am as a person, my character, and as a human being.”

“I've studied the game in every different aspect that I can.”

“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.”

“Just because someone lives in a hut, that doesn't mean that isn't a good person, that that person can't do better, that person isn't capable of being great. And just because it's a hut - whatever that means - doesn't mean it's not a home.”

“It's a great thing that the NBA has done in Africa to develop the game.”

“Growing up in Africa, I always dreamt big.”

“The natural thing in Africa is to start playing soccer at 8 or 9. You go outside and you play like kids play basketball here, and you grow a feel for the game. In Africa, the kids start playing basketball at 16 or 17 or 18, and when they get an opportunity to come here, they have been playing for only one or two years.”

“I was one of those athletic African players.”

“It's my responsibility to put a team on the floor that will win, and that attracts players.”