Talent Search Focuses on an Unlikely Place

[MavKikiNYC]

Talent Search Focuses on an Unlikely Place
By CHRIS BROUSSARD


Africa has already produced one of the top centers in Hakeem Olajuwon and one of the elite of his era in Dikembe Mutombo. But the National Basketball Association believes you ain't seen nothing yet.

As N.B.A. rosters begin to swell with international players, the league has started to look for the next frontier of great basketball talent. Its search has led it to Africa.

"I think if there's a market in the future, it's Africa," said the Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Donn Nelson, one of the major figures in the international game. "The problem is infrastructure. There is virtually none over there. That's why you see raw, talented athletes that really don't have a good feel for the game and as a result, those guys have a hard time sticking. Your Olajuwons and your Michael Olowokandis are the exception.

"The majority of the African guys that come to the States have lacked that development in their formative years. And just like in scholastic education where you can't be expected to skip high school and go to Harvard, it's the same thing with basketball. You can't miss out on really important aspects in a critical time phase and be expected to come over here and excel at the collegiate or professional level."

In hopes of changing that, the N.B.A. is sending a large contingent of players and coaches to Africa to conduct its first Africa 100 Camp in conjunction with FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and Basketball South Africa.

The camp, which will be held Sept. 2-7 at the American International School in Johannesburg, will bring together the continent's top 100 players ages 16 to 20 for three and a half days of intensive training.

In all, 22 African nations will be represented.

Similar camps have been held for the past three years in Europe and for the past two years in Latin America.

The African-born N.B.A. players Mutombo (Zaire) of the Nets, Portland's Ruben Boumtje Boumtje (Cameroon), Toronto's Mamadou N'diaye (Senegal), Cleveland's DeSagana Diop (Senegal) and Orlando's Olumide Oyedeji (Nigeria) will attend, as well as the Detroit veteran Michael Curry and coaching representatives from 15 N.B.A. teams, including Nelson.

"There's a lot of young kids today in Africa playing basketball," said Mutombo, who first picked up a basketball at age 19. "But the lack of basketball courts stops them from growing to their potential. If you ask young kids on the street, they can name 5 to 20 N.B.A. players, and you see more kids in Africa wearing N.B.A. jerseys. That tells you how much the game is growing over there.

"I think we will begin to see more African players in the league than ever before. All they need is for someone to show them what they need to do to get to this level."

Even though Egypt and a few other countries have organized professional competition, there are no leagues in Africa on a par with those in Europe and South America. Typical competition usually pits a university team against the army team or the local police team.

Children play in cadet and junior programs, but with so few facilities, the opportunity for improvement is limited.

Many of the N.B.A.'s African players run camps and work with their native countries to develop leagues, and the N.B.A. will aid in this by donating 100 balls to every national federation that participates in the Africa 100 camp. In addition, it will provide uniforms, sneakers, socks, rims, nets and work with the federations in building courts.

Two Africans were selected in this summer's draft, Ndudi Ebi and Malick Badiane. Ebi, who was born in London and reared in Nigeria before coming to the United States, is a 6-foot-9 forward from Houston's Westbury Christian High School. He was selected by Minnesota with the 26th pick. The 6-10 Badiane was chosen 44th by Houston.

"Africa really is an untapped resource," said Kim Bohuny, the N.B.A.'s vice president for international basketball operations. "There's so much potential."

The Africa 100 Camp is about more than basketball. In between individual drills in the morning and games in the evening, players will work with the American contingent on community service projects. And seminars about life skills, staying away from drugs, and HIV/AIDS prevention will be held.

On Sept. 4, the N.B.A. will unveil its first Reading and Learning Center outside North America.
The center will provide thousands of donated books, resource guides and materials to children attending the Ithuteng Trust, a local school for troubled youth. Desktop computers, printers, servers and other educational software will also be donated by Dell.

To Mutombo, the educational aspect of the camp is as important as the basketball. He is one of the N.B.A.'s most community-minded players and has spent many years raising money to build a hospital in the Congo, formerly Zaire. Many of the current African players have followed Mutombo's lead, a trend the N.B.A. believes will benefit Africa in basketball and beyond.

"The saying goes that in Africa, 'If you save one player, you save a thousand,' because he gives back so much," Bohuny said. "Every one of the N.B.A. players does a great deal in their homeland. They run summer leagues out of their own money, they run camps, they donate thousands of dollars' worth of products back home. They're working with the federations to professionalize the sport. So that, for Africa, is the really important next step."

[Drbio]

If anyone can find a gem outside of the USA it is Donn Nelson.

[Rhylan]

Know what? I can't even remember the name of the Senegalese kid we all wanted the Mavs to draft...

Badiane! Never mind [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] anyway..............