The first-time counselor remembered exactly where he sat as a wide-eyed camper. He pointed to the spot and informed his audience that he was in that very space just six years ago.
The campers, about 70 strong, responded as if Luc Mbah a Moute had told them a joke.
“They laughed, like they couldn’t believe it was possible,” he said.
On the telephone from Johannesburg, Mbah a Moute (pronounced BAH-ah-MOO-tay) said he could understand the youthful skepticism, notwithstanding the living proof that one — if only one of a very large number — could make the leap from teenage African camper to N.B.A. millionaire and missionary.
Mbah a Moute, a Cameroonian rookie with the Milwaukee Bucks last season, was back in Africa last week as the first alumnus of the camp, which is part of the N.B.A.’s Basketball Without Borders program, to return to it as an N.B.A. player and counselor.
“The kids here are not like Americans because to them the N.B.A. is so far away,” said Mbah a Moute, a 6-foot-8 forward. “I remember that feeling. Even though some Africans have made it, you can’t actually grasp the possibility until you leave the continent.”
What were the odds for Mbah a Moute’s even being chosen to attend the first such camp in 2003 as a gangly 16-year-old from Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital? He didn’t play basketball until age 14, when he and his twin, Emmanuel Bidias a Moute, began shooting at a backboard and rim on a streetlight pole in the Etoa-Meki neighborhood of central Yaoundé.
Within two years, Mbah a Moute was the best youth player in his country, with an invitation for the N.B.A. camp at the American International School of Johannesburg.
There, an African legend, Dikembe Mutombo, schooled him on the manly art of boxing out and moving on. Three weeks later, Mbah a Moute boarded a plane to Central Florida to attend prep school at Montverde Academy, on his way to a scholarship and a three-year run at U.C.L.A.
“It all happened so fast, but it changed my life,” Mbah a Moute said before flying from New York to Johannesburg, where he joined Mutombo, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh, among others.
Mutombo is a patron saint of African basketball, and Howard and Bosh are N.B.A. All-Stars, but Mbah a Moute was the most luminous presence at last Wednesday’s get-acquainted session.
“I’ve been in any number of situations where basketball players and other athletes are talking to teenagers, and Luc, as much as anyone I’ve seen, had those kids sitting at the edge of their seats,” said Richard Lapchick, a civil rights activist and longtime sports watchdog, who joined the N.B.A. group in Johannesburg. “It’s an old phrase, I know, but when he got up, you could hear a pin drop.”
Mbah a Moute is not the first N.B.A. player from Cameroon; Georgetown’s Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje had a short run with Portland early this decade. By the N.B.A.’s count, 23 Africans have played in the league, including six last season. Three more were drafted in June, including the Tanzanian center Hasheem Thabeet, taken second in the first round out of Connecticut by Memphis.
Insisting he has retired after 19 N.B.A. seasons, Mutombo said by telephone not to forget Christian Eyenga, the last pick of the first round by Cleveland, from Mutombo’s native Congo. “Since we first came, the quality has improved so much,” he said.
When Yao Ming landed in Houston in 2002, China was forecast to be the next major talent pipeline, based on its huge basketball-loving population. But Chinese players, limited in part by conservative coaching techniques, have not yet demonstrated the improvisational and freewheeling athleticism necessary to survive in the American game.
Africa is beset with its own issues, mainly a lack of resources and quality coaching, but there apparently is an abundance of talent waiting to be offered a serious alternative to soccer.
“I remember the report back from our first camp,” said Kathy Behrens, the N.B.A.’s executive vice president for social responsibility and player programs. “It said these kids are wonderful athletically but woefully unsound and raw.”
Ever watchful of the world from his perch in Manhattan’s Olympic Tower, David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, said: “In Africa, we’re beginning to see new countries challenging the traditional powers like Angola — the Ivory Coast, Tunisia. I’ve said this before: Africa could be a continent as important to the development of players as Eastern and Western Europe combined.”
Going against the grain of America’s basketball elite, Mbah a Moute said he hoped the game would foremost be an educational vehicle for African players.
“Let’s face it, what you hope from a camp like this one is that a few of these kids can make it into a college program, let alone the N.B.A,” he said.
Soon after hitting the sport’s global radar, Mbah a Moute drew interest from European club teams. His father, Camille Moute a Bidias, the general manager of the Cameroonian national employment fund, said he was not thrilled with the idea of either of his sons (Emmanuel followed Luc to the United States to play collegiately) taking a job in professional basketball at 16.
“I knew Luc had talent, but I didn’t know he had that much talent,” Moute a Bidias said in French by telephone from Yaoundé. “But I told him, ‘If you are going to play basketball, then you have to go to America and go to school.’ ”
Mbah a Moute said he promised his father he would get his degree in international development from U.C.L.A., and his father said he would hold him to it.
“I didn’t want to bother him his first season, but absolutely, absolutely,” he said.
Lapchick said Mbah a Moute’s speech to the campers was firm: basketball should not be seen by them solely as a path to a pot of gold but as a means of expanding the mind. That night, Mbah a Moute told Lapchick he had been rehearsing all summer. When he finished, the campers rewarded their most successful alumnus with a standing ovation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment