“As a scout in the NBA, you worry about finding the next big thing, the next Hakeem [Olajuwon, nigerianischer Ex-NBA-Star – Anm. d. Red.]the next Dikembe [Mutombo, früherer kongolesischer NBA-Star]the next Manute Bol [Ex-NBA-Star aus dem Sudan]”, says Masai Ujiri about his vision of promoting young Africans through basketball. “But the more often we do this [Nachwuchs-]camps, the more I realized that not all of these kids are going to make it to the NBA or go to college in the US. So how can you teach them everyday skills? And so it just expanded into something more.”
Summer after summer, Ujiri travels through African cities preaching the virtues of basketball, the joy of the game, and the personal discipline that the sport demands and encourages. The 52-year-old Nigerian is president of the Toronto Raptors, the only non-US team in the world’s top basketball league. In 2019, the Raptors made NBA history when they brought the championship to Canada for the first time.
Youth camps also for girls
Ujiri, who was born in Great Britain to Nigerian parents and enjoyed modest success as a basketball player, is the first African to lead an NBA club. In this pioneering role, he also feels responsible for promoting basketball in Africa. Initially, Ujiri was involved in the NBA charity “Basketball Without Borders”. In 2003 he was one of the founders of the “Giants of Africa” foundation, which aims to promote basketball on the continent.
Young basketball players train at a “Giants of Africa” camp in Cotonou, Benin
When the reporter first met Ujiri in 2017 at one of his junior camps in the Nigerian capital Lagos, there were 60 boys training there. Ujiri not only taught them basketball, but also emphasized time management, honesty, integrity, respect for authority and – most importantly for him – respect for women. In the meantime, young female basketball players are also being trained in the “Giants of Africa” camps.
Trained two NBA pros
As a former basketball scout for various NBA teams, Ujiri has found that the education system in the United States offers many opportunities for athletes to gain a foothold in life. Not all talent ends up in the NBA, but they stay in the sports environment. “There’s a path that basketball dictates,” Ujiri told DW. “You can use it as a tool to further your education and turn your passion for sport into a profession: from law to medicine to management and beyond.”
Basketball youth camp (here in Ougadougou in Burkina Faso) as a school of life
In the past five years, two talents from Nigerian “Giants of Africa” youth camps have made it into the NBA. Precious Achiuwa, who came to one of the camps when he was 14, now plays in Toronto under Ujiri as a center for the Raptors. Charles Bassey, who also plays at center, was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021. Many other camp grads are now playing on US college teams.
“There is so much talent in Africa and the chances of making it are greater now because the game has become even more global,” says Ujiri. “However, a lot of kids go through our program and you don’t know if they’ll ever become NBA players.”
get kids off the street
Like everywhere else in the world, children and young people in Africa have become more interested in basketball since they have been able to watch NBA games over the Internet. However, there is still a lack of basketball infrastructure. “We have set ourselves the goal of building 100 basketball courts in Africa,” says Ujiri. The sport cannot be practiced “on the rubbish heap”, according to the head of the Toronto Raptors: “In the west every high school has a gym, but unfortunately that’s not the case in Africa. That’s where we have to start. Then the young people can start earlier to play.”
Last August, Giants of Africa inaugurated the 15th basketball court in its program at a school in the town of Mbuji Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, founded by NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo. New squares have also been created in Lagos, the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. More are to follow.
“For me, the greatest thing is when someone sends me videos of a place, for example the one we built in Tanzania. Children play there every day,” says Masai Ujiri. “It takes them off the streets where they would do things they shouldn’t do.”
This article was adapted from English by Stefan Nestler.