Andre Roberson: "I think we had a good shot to do some special things this year"

Andre Roberson’s first interview as a member of the Blue-White-Sky Blues — about his jersey number, name and emotions after joining Zenit.

— First practice, what is your impression so far?

— Oh man, really good guys. Really great guys, hardworking guys and I think we had a good shot to do some special things this year. So, very nice to meet everybody but look forward to meet them a little bit more.

— At the first training you were practicing with Andrey Vorontsevich. Do you know that you're not the only one Andre?

— Yeah, there are at least two of us (laughs).

— How should we pronounce your name? Andy, Andrew, Andre or Anfrey like in Russian?

— Andre is fine, yeah. Coming from France, so, you know, they pronounce it similar like that. So, yeah, that's fine.

— How much time did it take for you to accept an offer from Zenit?

— Not too long man honestly. My agent got things in order. We made couple things happening and here I am.

— Why did you choose the number 00? What does it mean?

— Unfortunately, the 21st was taken (laughs). That’s my number my whole life but you know it's okay. So I chose 00, one of my good buddies. So get the represent him as well.

— We know you defended brilliantly throughout your career against most dangerous top players of the world. Including LeBron James. Is it your main strength to defend against such guys?

— Oh, for sure, I mean, my main strength, that, my IQ. Just kind of keeping everybody on the same page and just being that glue guy bringing everybody together. So I would say that's kind of more of my main strength than anything nowadays and just trying help guide people in the right direction with my experience been around the game for many years. And just kind of you know help advance and push the back game of basketball forward and helping any way I can elevate these guys around me.

— Please tell us about your top-3 players you defended against.

—Top three players I defended against? There are many… Kobe Bryant out there. Klay Thompson was one of the hardest people to guard. Then he was on his prime. Prime LeBron also. We didn't really have a lot of battles against each other because he did sit out a couple times or he was injured or tweaked something so we didn't really have that much of a matchup till later on in the career.

— Who's your role model in basketball?

— Who's my role model? I grew up watching a lot of Tim Duncan, I grew up watching a lot of Scottie Pippen. I love Scottie Pippen's game, and I liked Tim Duncan's demeanor and the way he carried himself, so I try to mimic that a lot.

— Do you know that Scottie Pippen is a Andrey Vorontsevich's favorite player?

— Is that right?

— He's got number 33.

— Oh, that's nice, that's nice. Well, we've got a lot in common already (laughs).

— What do you want to say to Zenit fans? They will meet you soon, they are so hungry for titles.

— I look forward to meeting you all. Hopefully we can do something special this year. We plan to do something special this year and bring all two cups in the Russian Championship. Win, win, win is the goal.