Ibidun Allison emerged from her automobile at a bustling market in Lagos, Nigeria, and was instantly swarmed by keen distributors. “Mommy, mommy, come purchase from me!” they shouted. “Purchase from me!”
An actress then in her seventies, Allison peered out on the group and noticed one determine towering above the remaining.
His identify was Rueben Chinyelu.
He was 14 years previous and stood round 6-8.
Allison couldn’t imagine her eyes. What was this boy doing right here? Why was he promoting garments? She maneuvered via the gang to search out him.
“Do you play basketball?” she requested Chinyelu.
He smiled and laughed, as he did each different time somebody requested him that query.
“I’m critical,” Allison mentioned. “You possibly can go to high school enjoying basketball. You possibly can additional your schooling.”
This caught Chinyelu’s consideration. The thought of enjoying basketball had by no means been framed to him on this means—as a doable ticket to a greater schooling. And for some cause, it struck a distinct chord coming from Allison. Chinyelu had by no means performed basketball earlier than in his life. However all of a sudden, he felt compelled to pursue it. “I simply assume the whole lot occurs on God’s timing,” he says.
That was the summer time of 2018. Six years later, Chinyelu is a 6-11 rising sophomore on the College of Florida. He transferred from Washington State College, the place he performed in all 35 video games final season and completed fourth within the Pac-12 in blocks.
Rising up within the jap area of Nigeria, Chinyelu was six years previous when he misplaced his father. His mom raised him and his three older sisters, emphasizing self-discipline and schooling above all else. Chinyelu didn’t play any sports activities as a child—not even soccer, which is by far the preferred sport in Nigeria. As an alternative, he targeted fully on his schoolwork and dreamed of in the future changing into a physician.
Every little thing modified that afternoon in 2018 when Allison, whom Chinyelu now refers to as his grandma, walked into his brother-in-law’s store. Lower than every week later, Chinyelu went to the Nationwide Stadium to register to hitch Raptors Basketball Academy. Regardless of his inexperience and rail-thin body, he made a direct impression on his new coach, Charles Ibeziakor.
“I noticed one thing that was completely different from the opposite boys that come to be taught basketball,” Ibeziakor says. “I noticed that this man goes to be a possible participant, a prospect, due to his laborious work. He didn’t relent.”
Chinyelu’s self-discipline carried over from lecturers to basketball. If I’m doing this, I’m all in, he instructed himself. The workforce practiced Monday via Friday from 8 a.m. to midday through the summer time, however Chinyelu would come to the court docket at 6 a.m. for further work. He skilled individually with Ibeziakor each Sunday and watched tutorials on YouTube to sort out the basics. Quickly, his dream was to make it to the NBA.
Inside a 12 months, Chinyelu was picked to symbolize Nigeria within the 2019 FIBA U16 African Championship. He averaged 12.3 factors and 17.6 rebounds (finest within the event) to assist his workforce place third. “He was probably the greatest,” says Ibeziakor. “From there, I knew that this man was going to go locations.”
Even earlier than his debut for the junior nationwide workforce, Chinyelu acquired curiosity from excessive colleges all through the US, however his request for a visa was denied by the embassy. Eight occasions. And Chinyelu by no means actually discovered why. He was damage, however undeterred. He simply needed to discover a new path. “If I cry or get mad about it, I’m simply doubling the issue,” he says. “I simply by no means doubted myself.”
Coach Ibeziakor can also be a scout for NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball coaching heart in Saly, Senegal. The Academy was established in 2017 to offer prime excessive school-age prospects from throughout the continent with the instruments essential to pursue a future within the sport. Chinyelu arrived in 2021, having gotten a lot stronger after understanding at dwelling through the pandemic. He now had entry to state-of-the-art services and was surrounded by the very best younger gamers in Africa, all of whom shared his ambition to achieve the following degree. Within the faculty’s multi-purpose room, the place the scholars eat, watch TV and socialize, footage of African gamers who’ve made it to the NBA adorn the partitions—a continuing reminder of the aim they’re all chasing.
With professional steering from employees members resembling technical director Roland Houston and head coach Alfred Aboya, Chinyelu improved dramatically on the Academy. “They’ve performs. Again dwelling, we don’t have performs,” Chinyelu describes. “Simply go play basketball, catch the rebound, cross the ball, make baskets. It was completely different getting breakdowns, further exercises, when to work out, easy methods to preserve your sleep. Within the Academy, they didn’t simply educate us about basketball—they taught us easy methods to be a basketball participant and in addition easy methods to be a person. As a result of all of it works collectively.”
Chinyelu based the “6:00 a.m. Membership” with Coach Aboya, a morning exercise ritual that his teammates, who usually reported to the health club nearer to 7:00 a.m., finally joined. “He’s a tireless employee,” says Aboya. “He’ll bug you to work him out.”
The Academy competes in exhibitions and showcases throughout the globe, and Chinyelu additionally participated within the 2022-23 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season, averaging 5.4 factors and seven.9 rebounds for Stade Malien. Since he began so late, his recreation—notably on offense—continues to be being polished, however Chinyelu all the time brings power and depth. He turns into “a distinct particular person” on the court docket, in response to former Academy teammate Seifeldin Hendawy. “Rueben’s recreation is so emotional,” Hendawy, an incoming freshman at Loyola Chicago, continues. “Tremendous aggressive. When he comes between the traces, he simply forgets the whole lot. He doesn’t care. He’ll be dunking on folks, destroying rims.”
Hendawy remembers one recreation of full-court two-on-two when Chinyelu “simply went loopy” battling in opposition to fellow Nigerian and present Louisville large man Emmanuel Okorafor. The trash discuss was flowing and the match-up was changing into more and more bodily. At one level, Chinyelu threw down a vicious dunk and set free a scream so highly effective that it startled Hendawy and different spectators. “The health club was shaking,” Hendawy recollects with a chuckle. Houston finally needed to interject to settle issues down a bit. “I’m him, Coach!” Chinyelu hollered at Houston, pounding his chest. “I’m him!”
That picture stands in stark distinction to Chinyelu off the ground. He’s soft-spoken, well mannered and eloquent, his feedback peppered with the identical kind of inspirational phrases which can be taped up in lecture rooms on the Academy.
“Rome wasn’t inbuilt a day.”
“The simple highway just isn’t all the time the best way.”
“The one factor I can management is the current.”
“I do know that one thing that’s meant to occur is unquestionably going to occur.”
He has a chilled presence that one might simply foresee translating into a superb bedside method. Whereas his essential goal stays to make it to the NBA, Chinyelu can also be learning to change into a dentist and plans to take summer time courses to complete faculty ought to he go away early for the draft.
Chinyelu joins a gifted Florida squad (slotted at No. 20 in ESPN’s present rankings) and will assume a a lot greater function this season after averaging simply 13.8 minutes per recreation for Washington State. The Gators have a number of strong frontcourt choices, however Chinyelu is projected to start out at heart. He arrived on campus in the beginning of June following a short journey again to Africa, throughout which he visited household in Nigeria and caught the BAL Finals in Rwanda.
Watching him at present, his first coach, Ibeziakor, just isn’t shocked by the participant Chinyelu has change into. “As a result of I do know the type of individual that Rueben is,” he says. “I do know that Rueben will work further to get there—to play within the NBA. And I imagine that he’ll play [there] in the future.”
Pictures by way of Getty Photos.
