Masai Ujiri: Building young African dreams with basketball

"As a scout in the NBA, your mind is about 'how do we find the next big talent, the next Hakeem, the next Dikembe, the next Manute Bol?'" says Masai Ujiri about his vision to empower young Africans through the game of basketball.

"But the more we held these camps, it dawned on me that not all these kids will make it to the NBA or go to college in the United States. So, how do you teach them life skills? And so, it expanded into more."

Every summer, Ujiri travels across several African cities preaching the joy and discipline of basketball. The 52-year-old Nigerian is the vice chairman and president of the Toronto Raptors, the Canada-based National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise. In 2019, Ujiri's Raptors won the NBA Championship, the first for a team outside of the US.

His pioneering role as the first African to head a North American sports franchise has come with a lot of responsibilities to his continent. After starting his development work with Basketball Without Borders, Ujiri co-founded the Giants of Africa, a foundation to develop basketball growth in Africa in 2003.

When this reporter first met him in 2017 at one of his camps in Lagos, Nigeria, Ujiri had around 60 boys in training. He taught them about time management, honesty, integrity, respect for authorities and importantly, respect for women.

He has since expanded the outreach to include girls, too.

The benefits of basketball

As a basketball scout for NBA teams, Ujiri realized that the US educational system offered a lot of opportunities for sports people to gain a foothold in life. He knows that not all of them will play in the NBA, but they can still find a life in other aspects of the industry.

"There is a path that basketball creates," Ujiri tells DW. "You can use it as a tool to get an education and use it to work in your passion in sports – from law to medicine to management and beyond."

Ujiri guides his young mentees throughout these camps and, since our last conversation, two of the former campers have made it to the NBA: Precious Achiuwa, who now plays in Toronto under Ujiri, and who first came to the Giants of Africa when he was 14, as well as center Charles Bassey, a 2021 draftee of the Philadelphia 76ers.

"There's so much talent in Africa, and the chances of making it are greater now because the game is even more global," explains Ujiri, adding a note of caution: "But still, many of these kids come through and you don't know if they're going to become NBA players."

The successes of Achiuwa, Bassey and many others who have made it to US colleges keep him motivated even as he is faced with the challenge of poor basketball infrastructure in many African countries.

The vision of a hundred courts

Despite the increasing global interest in the sport occasioned by the improved access to it through the internet, many young Africans that want to play are still hampered by a dearth of good facilities.

Unlike football that can be played on just about any surface, basketball requires a court with standard hoops, shoes and a ball. Ujiri decided in 2021 to build courts on the continent to enable access to further develop the game.

"We made a commitment to build 100 courts around the continent because, going from country to country, I saw that infrastructure is something we need to build. When we go to organizations and ask for sponsorships or partnerships, everybody wants to do programming but where do you do the programming?," he says.

"Are you just going to do it all on waste ground? Because we lack the facilities. In the West, every high school has a gym, but it is not the same, unfortunately, in Africa. So, we have to get it there and then the youth can start to play earlier."

In August, the Giants of Africa launched its 15th court in Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a school founded by NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo. They have also built new courts in Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali, Ouagadougou, and many more are waiting to be delivered to hopeful communities.

"The biggest thing for me is when somebody sends me videos of a court we built in Tanzania and you see kids playing there every day. It takes them off the streets from doing things that they shouldn't be doing, and they can sharpen their skills," Ujiri concludes.

And even if their skills on the court don't quite make the grade, those learned off it can still help set them up for life.

Edited by Matt Ford.