‘Just a Kid from Brazzaville’

By Serge Ibaka

Hello, everyone, from Luanda, Angola! I’m here to participate in the NBA Sprite Development Camp, which gathers some of the best young African basketball talents for a three day event.

My good friend Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls is here with me and we are both excited. To me, it feels unreal to be on the other side of a basketball camp — the side of the professional basketball player that tries to give advice to young players. Not too long ago I was one of these players.

Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day of another basketball camp, adidas nations, that is going on in Los Angeles, USA. Adidas nations was my first big basketball camp, back in 2007. It was an international camp and I was part of Team Africa. It was my first international experience, playing against some of the best american high school kids like Byron Mullens or Lance Stephenson. I was just a kid from Brazzaville that had flown to the USA for the first time.  Read more