Bol Bol says Kevin Durant is “a lot of the reason” why he’s on the Suns in an exclusive interview

Bol Bol says Kevin Durant is “a lot of the reason” why he’s on the Suns in an exclusive interview

Joining us right now on the Arizona sports line bbo here on Arizona Sports I’m Dave this is gambo bbo welcome to the show how you doing today I’m good how about you great fun to watch you play very fun to watch you play it’s great to see you have all this

Success and a lot of people thought this was going to happen take me back to July 16th when you decided to sign with the Phoenix Suns you had a bunch of other teams that were interested in you why did you ultimately decide to come to

Phoenix um I just thought it’d be a good opportunity for me and uh just to be like around book and KD and Brad and I just like just a new start here for me and just I think being able to be like uh under like one of my favorite players

And someone who I really look up to growing up I think is just like been helping me able to grow and that’s just a big part of why I chose to come here and that’s Kevin Durant right you looked up to Kevin Durant yes sir 100% yeah were you

Surprised I mean you had done some good things with Orlando still very young and talented and skilled were you were you surprised when they decided to part ways with you and you hit free agency I mean yeah but I mean NBA and things happen

And I know it’s just part of it and I was just just very thankful to end up landing on the Suns I played the sound bite from the guy that you were just talking about a second ago Kevin Durant everybody loves bub and how he plays and his soul and

Things like that how when you hear somebody that you look up to like that say that about you how does that make you feel um it means a lot to me because like that’s just like someone I look up to growing up and he’s like part like a

Lot of the reason why I came here and just hearing that from him just made me smile and just inspired me to just keep working harder and just keep learning from him is that when you’re in in practice behind the scenes how much in practice every single day that’s being

On the same court as Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and and hearing Bradley Beal and hearing what those guys have to say how much does that drive you and how much does that guide you to be the best version of yourself that you can be

B uh it drives me a lot and it inspires me a lot because those are three of the top players in this league and that’s where I want to be so like just taking anything I can from them is just like a blessing every day to be able to be in

The gym with them and just like take up anything I can your your father played 10 years in the NBA had a had an amazing impact on the NBA with what he was able to do what did you learn from him I know you looked up to Kevin Durant but what

Did you learn from your father growing up about the game of of basketball um my dad would uh he would always just like take me to games and just like watch basketball and and with me and but one thing I really like learned from him was

Like really had to shoot like young just like not just being tall and he would teach me to like just to be able to have the skill set to shoot so because he was able to shoot for a big man and that’s just like one thing that stuck with me

Absolutely I mean he had some really high field goal percentages 46 45 uh percent so he could shoot a little bit the shop loocking your dad was always known as the shop locker and obviously with the size that you and even your father had you know you would think it

Comes natur but is there an art to it is there it’s not just is it something that comes natural or is it something you really have to work on to be a great shop Locker um I think some of it’s like like naturally gifted like me like

Having my length of horse so that gives me like an advantage but um definitely a lot of is like skill because like you still have to be able to time and like still have to be in position and not get a foul so like there’s still other

Things to it BB is our guest here on the burns and gambo show coming off his performance last night the Suns win against the Milwaukee Bucks I I was lucky enough to be at the game last night you get up in the in the first half and you start taking your warm-ups

Off and there’s a buzz that goes through the crowd almost immediately I could sense it others in the arena could sense it can can you sense that when you come into a game when you’re at home and and how how does that kind of fuel you when

You’re on the floor to be the best version of yourself I’m 100% uh I can hear the crowd every single time and it’s just all love especially on my side on both ends and it just really motivates me to just uh play here in Phoenix and hear the crowd youve

Probably had that a lot over the course of your career is that something that you ever get used to you know the people just reacting when you come into a game like that because I would imagine that’s kind of followed you around in in your different stops in the

NBA yeah but uh I will say it’s I think it’s a lot louder here I think San B is a lot louder here yeah it could get loud they like you hear a little bit more okay I can see that I was I hear a

Little bit more for sure I was at a lot of games early in the season when you weren’t playing and the Suns would to get a big they would start chanting b b b b they wanted you in the game and at that point Frank wasn’t really using you

Yet I mean did you notice that as well that early in the season the fans were chanting for you hoping that you would get in the game in the final minutes of the fourth quarter oh yeah of course I’d always hear the fans from the start of

Season until now like even when I wasn’t playing like the end of the games even like if I make a shot or anything like it’ll get a lot louder like I always appreciate the fans it’s a big lift to the whole team too not just the fans and

You but the team gets a big lift from you coming in and playing well you know when the sun’s when the sun’s signed you one of the things I had heard was that they wanted to work with you they thought that you had a lot of skill and

A big ceiling that you could be so much better and they wanted to work with you a little bit and it wasn’t until New Year’s Day against Portland where you really got your first chance at extend exended minutes and from that point forward you have been terrific you had

11 points and nine rebounds on that New Year’s Day game against Portland you followed that up with 14 points against the Clippers on six to seven shooting take me back to the Portland game when you got that first opportunity to play what do you remember about

That um I actually got talked to the game before that was Orlando game but I didn’t end up getting in and then the next game he came up to me and told me I’ll play and pretty much I just was just trying to bring as much energy and just do what I

Can and play Within the team and just like just play as hard as I can and just let everything do itself and feel like that’s been working for me was it hard the first you know six seven weeks of the season to sit and watch and not play

How do you keep yourself motivated and ready to play when you’re not getting that opportunity yeah it’s definitely hard um but it’s like it’s part of it and like you really just got to continue to just get up extra shots still just like watch film and still just believe

And just keep your head up and really just wait for your time because like you never know and you just got to be prepared for whenever your numbers called all right I I’ll leave you with this you guys are playing some great basketball right now do you see the

Phoenix Suns as a place that you would want to be long term do you feel like you know this is where you want to be as a player 100% it’s been nothing for long nothing but love and I just love it here so far and just like being able to grow

And just from the coaching staff to the players feel like everything’s been pretty good for me so far all right well hey thank you for the conversation we appreciate you spending a few minutes with us after practice best of luck the rest of the season we’re enjoying watching this so we appreciate you

Coming on okay thank you very much for having me thanks B thank you b b joining us here on the burns and gambo show thanks for watching Burns and gambo click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona

Sports

Bol Bol joins Burns & Gambo to talk about contributing in the Suns’ lineup and learning from Kevin Durant.

Video/Photo: Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports and Phoenix Suns/NBA

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