Nigeria Newspapers Online

Young Nigerian basketballer bags US scholarships after street encounter with Calabar lawyer David Etim and coach at the NBA Academy Africa. Credit: Faithfulness Okom/X A young Nigerian basketballer, David Etim, has bagged three United States scholarship offers after encountering a Calabar-born lawyer, Faithfulness Okom. Narrating how he met Etim to our correspondent on Thursday, Okom said he met Etim in 2021 while driving in Calabar that fateful Saturday and was fascinated with his height and decided to lure him into playing basketball. According to him, Etim was not the only one he dragged to a basketball academy to start a career. He said he had some other people he was convinced to start playing basketball upon seeing their height, which he believed was one of the requirements for playing. The Calabar lawyer, now based in Spain, said, “I was driving randomly on a Saturday if I can recall. I started watching the NBA in 2020 and grew an obsession with basketball. It annoyed me when I saw random tall guys who didn’t hoop. I dragged many people to play ball, three young guys before David. “I took them to the stadium, bought them gear, and enrolled them in the academy. David was taller than any of the boys I had reached out to, and when I saw him that day, I just decided to talk to him. Luckily, he was open to being helped, and then he came to my house, and the rest is history.” Speaking further on the tumultuous experiences Etim faced from his father to face his newly chosen career, he said convincing the bricklayer father was a bigger problem because he has always been the one assisting him with projects he embarked upon and having to see him concentrate on other things was taking a toll on him. He said, “Etim barely has time because his mom is absent and his dad is a bricklayer, and he has to assist him on his projects and do personal laundry for three families on the side. “He didn’t have a phone, but I described where I live and said to come on a particular 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 further said before he travelled abroad, he enrolled Etim in a less popular basketball academy in Calabar run by one Frank John but had to encourage the young Etim to move in with his family when the father was not allowing him to concentrate. He mentioned how excited he was when Etim recently got a trial at the NBA African Academy in Senegal for tryouts and a scholarship to an American high school. “Last night, David sent me these photos from Senegal and told me we only need to figure out the visa because of his performances. I am thoroughly excited for him and feel deep inner fulfillment. This is just the beginning,” he said. When asked to provide the scholarship details, Okom said the 17-year-old got three offers. “So he actually got three scholarship offers from Busche Academy New Hampshire, Episcopal High School Houston and Life Christian High School Virginia,” he stressed. The lawyer, in February, proposed to his girlfriend in Valencia, Spain.