Serge Ibaka led the Toronto Raptors in points, rebounds, blocks, and languages on Sunday. Some say that he’s unbelinguable. That’s not a word, though.
The Toronto Raptors had the kind of playoff game they feared from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. They combined for 28 points on 10 of 28 shooting. In the past that would have been enough to keep them just below the line Dwane Casey draws on the wall that says “score at least these many points to win,” and they would lose. That was before there was a Serge Ibaka.
With a little help from C.J. Miles as well as youngbloods Delon Wright and OG Anunoby, Serge Ibaka kept the Raptors afloat through some of their rougher offensive stretches and finished with a team-high 23 points and 12 rebounds. He did that while going 8 of 11 from the field and 3 of 4 from three-point range. That is how you basketball.
But whatever. A bunch of people basketballed yesterday. You know what a bunch of people didn’t do? Fluently move between three languages while answering questions in a post-game press conference.
It’s possible that J.R. Smith did that too, but there’s no video proof of it. Granted if he did do it, it was probably by accident.
Next: The Encyclopedia of Modern Moves
Ibaka has played for three NBA teams and can speak three languages. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I’m pretty sure that every time he changes cities it powers up his linguistic repertoire. I don’t know how it works, but the other possibility is “wanting to be able to speak multiple languages and applying oneself to that desire until they see it through.” In order to feel better about myself, I’ve decided not to think that second one is possible.
So here’s hoping Serge can get traded a couple more times so we can see what language he learns next. I feel like Portuguese might be the first choice, but I think there’s a shot he mixes it up and goes with Tagalog. We’ll have to wait and see.