Maurice Aniefiok on playing in America

[Harry]

(What was basketball like for you before you got to America?)

“I never played games as much as folks my age play here. We don't have AAU. We don't have a lot of competitions. Even the little ones we have, we approach with so much energy, because that might be the last one you have for the year. It wasn't the same thing like what y'all have here. What you guys have here is more organized. There's always something to do. In the whole year, there's no time for you to sit around and say for two or three months I don't have anything to do. As soon as you're done with the season, you have to rest for a few weeks before AAU games are kicking in. There's always something to do, and that kind of like gives you an edge.

“That was one of the things I saw. That's why, competing with people my age, they were a little bit different from me. Me being who I am, I don't back down like that. I just know to an extent these guys have an edge over me. They've played more games than I have. All I need to do is keep working hard, because I want to get there. I want to be as good as they are. All I need to do is spend more time in the gym. When everybody's out there partying, I have to be in the gym working on something I know I'm not really good. That's paid off and brought me this far so far. I don't want to stop doing that.”

Read more: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal - Aniefiok s adjustment