LAS VEGAS—There were priorities in the Chomche family, hard and strict priorities, and sports weren’t anywhere near the top of the list.
Sure, playing on the many soccer fields that dot the landscape of tiny Bafang in the western region of Cameroon might be OK, but only as a minor distraction.
It was education, the family’s two farms in the mainly rural village of fewer than 10,000 and a tight-knit family with an astonishing 17 siblings that mattered most.
Games? They weren’t tolerated for Raptors draft pick Ulrich Chomche, not without his family’s blessing.
“My family values education a lot,â€Â the teenage Raptor said here this week. “So they were like: Forget about basketball. You are not going to play a sport. It’s not going to bring you anything. If you go to school and have a good education, you can work and take care of your family.â€
At the start, that was fine for Chomche. The education was great and he knew it was important. The farm — “Bananas, plantains, coffee. You like coffee? I will bring you great coffee from there,†he said — was to be his future and his destiny.
Basketball? “I was not good. Just to run up and down, going hard even if I didn’t know what I was doing.â€
Chomche grew to six-foot-seven by age 13 and even if he wasn’t going to find basketball, basketball’s never-ending search for talent in the globe’s far-flung corners was going to find him.
Joe Touomou — associate technical director of the NBA Africa Academy based in Saly, Senegal — first tried to entice the gangly, promising teen. A scholarship, life skills interspersed with top-level basketball coach and a promise of a bright future was the sales pitch.
It was a tough sell.
“My family were like: ‘Don’t play basketball,’ †Chomche said. “My family was against me playing basketball anywhere.â€
A year later (“I don’t know, maybe God’s hand was at work,†he said) a persistent Touomou took another shot.
The family relented, with a stern warning: Do not mess up the young man.
“If anything happens to our kid, we’ll make sure we burn the academy,†he recalled with a laugh, recounting what the family said. “We’ll be looking for you.â€
If the family is looking for anyone now, it’s to offer thanks. At 18, Chomche has grown to six-foot-11 with a seven-foot-four wingspan and oodles of basketball potential.
The Raptors took him with the 57th pick in last month’s draft — after paying the Memphis Grizzlies $1 million (U.S.) for the right to make Chomche the first prospect selected directly from the NBA Africa Academy — because of his potential.
“What you notice first is sort of the proportionality of his body,†said Raptors assistant and Summer League head coach Jama Mahlalela. “He has an NBA frame: legs, arms, size, shoulders — that is just full NBA, full on right away.
“And then I think you see a willingness to learn ... Those are two great starting points.â€
He’s the seventh player from Cameroon to be drafted, and the third pick from that country to begin their NBA career with the Raptors following Pascal Siakam (2016) and Christian Koloko (2022).
Make no mistake, Chomche is not nearly ready for the NBA. It’s probably going to take him a while to even get used to the G League, where he’s sure to spend the bulk of his two-way contract year in the coming season.
But the strides he’s already taken — holding his own at the Nike Hoop Summit, playing in Olympic qualification games with the Cameroon national team — reflect his expanding game.
“When I got to the academy, basketball was something to love,†he said. “I love it and it can make a lot of things for me, for my family, for everyone.
“That’s when I put a lot of focus in … and that’s how I started about dreaming of making it to the NBA.â€
After that journey, with fits and starts at the beginning and myriad stops along the way, he’s a guy you can root for.
“He hasn’t been handed a silver platter. He hasn’t had this journey mapped out for him as many players do,†Mahlalela said. “I think it makes him special. I think that he wants this really badly. Not that other players don’t, but his journey to get here has made that feel more sort of robust and more focused. He’s got great energy, great smile. You guys are gonna love him as well. He seems like a really good kid.â€
There is not a disingenuous molecule in his body. He is grateful for the journey and for what he’s already got, and he accepts the responsibility.
“I always say that people can make history, I think that I made some, too,†he said. “I hope my other friends, my teammates, are going to follow behind.
“I am representing a lot of people behind me. Not just my family, but my teammates. I’m representing my continent. I am here for them, too.â€
On a truly unique journey.
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