Young Nigerian basketballer bags US scholarship after chance encounter in Calabar
A lawyer, Faithfulness Okom, who identifies as AttorneyF_ on X.com, has narrated how a young boy he assisted bagged a US scholarship to the NBA Africa Academy in Senegal after a street encounter.
Okom, in a post on his X account on Thursday, detailed how he encountered the tall, lanky kid in Calabar, Cross River State in 2021, where he learned of the boy’s dedication to basketball despite familial challenges.
He wrote, “In 2021, I was driving along Marian Road, Calabar and saw a really tall lanky kid, and I parked the car and chased after him to talk to him. ‘Do you play basketball?’… His response was he started playing a few weeks before but barely has time because his mom is absent and his dad is a bricklayer and he has to assist him on his projects, and also does personal laundry for three families on the side.
“He didn’t have a phone, I described where I live and said, ‘Come on x day and knock on the gate, and I’ll be there.’
“He came to my house, I showed him old videos of #Giannis_An34 when he was a scruffy hustling kid, tried to motivate him and gave him a suitcase of clothes (which his dad eventually burnt out of jealousy). ”
Okom narrated how he enrolled the boy in an academy in Calabar, adding that the boy ended up staying with his family due to challenges with his father.
