SERBY’S SUNDAY Q&A WITH... Caris LeVERT

Nets guard Caris LeVert takes a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Q: Are you guys determined not to live in the shadow of the Knicks?

A: I don’t even think that’s something that we really think about. We know that we’re our own organization, our own people, we have our own fan base. I don’t know if that’s something that anybody on our team thinks about, being in the shadow of them. We’re just trying to be ourselves, we’re trying to be the best us that we can be.

Q: What do you like best about your team?

A: Everybody is very selfless. Everybody wants to win. Everybody is very close. We don’t really have any guys on the team that are just in it for themselves.

Q: What drives you?

A: Definitely family. And just wanting to be great. I would say from a young age, basketball had been something I’ve loved. I’ve always wanted to be the best at anything I’ve ever done, and basketball’s no different.

Q: Do you think you can be great? Can you be a star?

A: I know I can be great. I don’t really worry about that word “star” too much though, ’cause I feel like that’s very subjective to the audience. But I know I can be great. I have the will, the want-to. I feel like God has blessed me with the physicals, I feel like for me it’s all mental.

Q: Your three foot surgeries: What was the emotional low point?

A: I never missed any games. And then there’s a stigma that comes with that, like, “Man, he’s injury-prone, we don’t know if he can last for a full season.” ... And it just kept happening, and I didn’t know why. Another weak point was probably like draft time [June 2016], I was like, “Man, I can’t even show what I’m capable of doing.” Like they just gotta go off of what I was doing when I was healthy. So it was like, “Man, I’m just doing interviews and that’s it.” That kind of hurt for me, because I’m a competitor. When you’re in college and you’re kind of watching the Combine on TV, you’re just thinking to yourself, “I can’t wait till I’m doing that, it’s gonna be super fun.”

Q: How worried were you that your NBA dream might have been shattered?

A: I always had a lot of confidence that my dream would come true, I just didn’t know how. ... Obviously God has a plan, I got drafted 20th [by the Pacers then traded] to the Nets, I’m here now.

Q: How confident are you on the court now?

A: I would say throughout everything, my confidence never wavered. I always knew what type of player that I was and that I was capable of being in the long run, kind of player I wanted to be. I’m somebody who, throughout everything, my confidence is never gonna be shaky.

Q: What kind of player do you envision yourself being?

A: I feel like I can be a player who can do a lot of different things on the court — score, pass, defend, rebound — whatever you need from me, I feel like I’m that type of player.

Q: Is there anybody who reminds you of you?

A: I don’t really think that I’m like anybody else. I pride myself on trying to be the best version of myself I could be. I honestly don’t know if there’s anybody like me in the NBANBA. I try to watch a lot of people because I try to pick little things from people’s games.

Q: Which guys do you take things from?

A: A lot of people. I take a lot of things from CJ McCollum, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden — a lot of different people, on both sides of the ball.

Q: Describe your on-court mentality.

A: I would say I’m a guy who’s very evenkeeled on the court. I don’t really let a lot of things get me too high or get me too low. You won’t see me out there superfrustrated, you won’t see me out there super-excited really, unless it’s like the end of a game or something big happens. I try to stay in the moment, try not to let things affect me too much. But I’m very competitive. I love winning, and I do whatever it takes to win.

Q: Give me an example of your competitiveness.

A: I have a younger brother [Darryl]. We’re like 11 months apart, and when we were growing up, he wasn’t really as competitive as I was, and he was always wondering why I was like that. And that kind of brought tension between us ’cause I would always want to win at everything, and I’d never let him win. I honestly can’t help it.

Q: You were upstairs when your father Darryl succumbed to a heart attack in 2010.

A: It was Easter Sunday, it was like Saturday night, Sunday morning. My mom was out of town [Washington, D.C], she was with her family. And I think they were at church. My brother woke me up. He was like, “Come downstairs,” like my dad’s not moving. As soon as I got down there, I kind of knew, like, something’s not right. ’Cause we’re like moving him, he wasn’t moving, he wasn’t responding, so we called 911 obviously. They got there, and they pronounced him dead. I think the hardest thing for me was I had to call everybody and tell ’em. A moment like that, you can’t really put that into words. A lot of people didn’t answer the phone, actually ‘cause it was like 10 a.m. Easter Sunday, people are at church. I’m leaving voice mails, like “Call me back when you get this message.” It’s just like, “Do I tell ’em over the voice

message what happened?” I think I was like 1313, I’m a young kid. And then finally got a hold of everybody and my mom kind of just hung up ‘cause she didn’t believe me. And then obviously she got there I think that night. It was just a crazy situation.

Q: Does your father’s memory motivate you today?

A: Absolutely. Absolutely. He’s the one who taught me how to play basketball. He taught me everything I know about life and things like that, and I just want to carry his legacy the right way.

Q: What is your best basketball moment either in high school, college or NBA?

A: I could give you one for all three maybe. Or for two. For high school [Pickerington Central, Ohio], it would definitely be my senior year, won the state championship. We were the first team in school history to do that. In college, a year later, we went to the Final Four actually at Michigan. We ended up losing the championship game to Louisville. But the [2013] Final Four experience is like no other, you can’t really put that into words. We had a lot of guys that people didn’t really think were that good, we had a lot of underrecruited guys, we didn’t really have any five-stars on that team but we did what a lot of people didn’t think we’d be able to do. And on the NBA, I don’t know if I have one yet, honestly. I haven’t really been on a playoff team yet, so I don’t think I have one for the NBA yet.

Q: Superstitions?

A: I listen to music like right before I go out on the court. But before that, I kind of do some visualization. I kind of just sit in a room just with my eyes closed and kind of just visualize the game, how I want it to go. I read some Bible verses for about 25, 30 minutes. And then I just go out there and hoop.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Michael Jordan. When I grew up, I was kind of watching film of his, and kind of strived to be like him on the court; AI, Allen Iverson ... he kind of shaped my love for the game at a young age, just the way he played, his relentlessness, his will to win. Denzel Washington. He’s my favorite actor.

Q: When Nets fans watch you play, what do you hope they say about you?

A: That guy’s a winner. Good, bad, indifferent, however he played, he played to win every single time.