Beware limelight, says Raps’ Ibaka

Tin New York he Toronto Raptors are slowly but surely starting to get the attention they or certainly the fan base have always craved from south of the border.

Whether it’s Dwane Casey being profiled in Sports Illustrated, moving into the top spot in the NBA.com power rankings or the national writers flocking to the them at every stop, the Raptors are a big thing these days and deservedly so.

Heading into play Monday, they sat 31/2 games clear of Boston for first place in the Eastern Conference, 101/2 clear of third-place Indiana and 11 clear of a fading Cleveland Cavaliers squad that sits fourth.

Serge Ibaka, one of only three members in the Raptors organization that has been to an NBA final with Casey and assistant Rex Kalamian , is just a tiny bit worried all the new-found attention has the potential to spoil a really good situation.

“I’m reading a book right now called Ego is the Enemy,” Ibaka said following practice Monday in New York.

“That is the only thing that can stop us right now. We have the pieces. We have the talent. We have everything. The only thing that can stop us from getting to a final is us.”

To be clear, Ibaka isn’t seeing any signs of trouble in this regard right now. As he points out, the team is a tight-knit unit and has been all season.

“We love to play with each other,” Ibaka said. “When one our teammates is doing good things, we are all happy for him. We work very well together as a team. We know the man on this team is Deeboo (DeMar DeRozan) and then Kyle (Lowry). We know that. They understand they need our help to help them. That is the key. That is why we are so successful.”

But Ibaka’s fear is what can happen when a team gets put under the kind of microscope that Golden State and the Cavaliers have been operating under the last few years.

“I’ve been part of this before where the media start talking about and to our families and all of that sort of thing and that’s when things (can start to pull apart),” Ibaka said.

“At the beginning of the year, nobody thought we could be this kind of team. There was no belief that we could be this successful and then now its like, ‘Oh (crap), the Raptors can actually do something.’

“Now the eyes are on us. The media is going to come and the criticism is going to increase.

“That is going to be the hard part for us to stay the same, to keep from being distracted, from what has made us successful. That is where the trouble could come.”

Ibaka has not seen that, but his experience tells him the potential is there and it worries him.

Ibaka believes the Raptors have the ability to get to the final, perhaps even win it.

“We have a coach who has already been there (to an NBA championship), so that’s a great thing to have someone like him,” he said.

“We have Rex and we have myself. It’s on us to make everyone understand. I think we will be fine because one thing I love about this group is there are no egos. The young guys on the bench are helping us win, but they don’t have egos. They just want to win. They want to learn. If you try to tell them something, they listen and that’s a great thing for a team.”