Pascal Siakam didn’t have a favourite basketball player growing up, unless you counted his older brothers, and for a long time he didn’t. Siakam still doesn’t have a favourite player, or at least he doesn’t have anybody he wants to emulate. He watches other players when he’s not at work: Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons. But he doesn’t want to be like anybody else.
“Like, I just feel like I’m unique, you know?” says Siakam, the Toronto Raptors’ third-year forward. “I want to be me and I want to play the way I play. I’m not trying to imitate one person.