KIGALI, Rwanda – Not many years ago, elite youth basketball players across Africa left their homes and moved to the United States. If they hoped to get the best coaching and training as high school prospects, moving was the only option. That appears to be slowly changing.
NBA Academy Africa is making it easier for the continent’s young talent to stay near home as it matures into stars – at least through the high school years.
“The ability to nurture the talent here at home, that’s really special,” Festus Ezeli, a Nigerian who played five seasons in the NBA, told Capital News Service.
NBA Academy Africa undoubtedly is changing the conversation for the top young players from the continent. A training facility where players train under NBA-trained coaches, it opened in Senegal in 2018. It’s located in Saly near Senegal’s capital, Dakar. Duke commit Khaman Maluach and Ulrich Chomche, who is a projected pick in the 2024 NBA Draft are among players who have attended school and trained there.
One indication of the academy’s impact: Two players with academy experience appeared in the 2021 NCAA Men’s Tournament compared to seven this year. Those seven players include former Kentucky forward Ugonna Onyenso and Baylor forward Joshua Ojianwuna, according to 247sports.com.
Reuben Chinyelu and Aziz Bandaogo also spent time at the academy. The African players were late to basketball, starting to play as teenagers. After training and attending school at the academy, both are Division I college players in the US, Chinyelu at the University of Florida and Bandaogo at the University of Cincinnati.
For Bandaogo, college basketball was an extension of the training he already had been exposed to at NBA Academy, he said noting that he felt well prepared.
“I always grew up knowing that basketball was not the be all, end all, and it was a tool,” Ezeli said. “You understand that just giving the kids one more tool in their tool kit to be successful, it’s really important. It’s just giving the kids more opportunities.”