Nigeria to North Carolina: Abdulsalam’s basketball odyssey
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BVM) — For Mohammed Abdulsalam, his basketball journey was truly that, a journey. Hailing from Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, Abdusalam came to the U.S. on a whim his freshman year of high school chasing what he thought could be a future in the game of basketball.
It paid off for the University of North Carolina – Greensboro (UNCG) junior forward, but at the time it was a risky decision.
The 6-foot-8 Spartan played soccer most of his life, and had never played the game of basketball until a local coach approached him. This coach was impressed with Abdulsalam’s size, as he stood at 6-foot-3 as a 15-year-old.
To Abdulsalam’s surprise, he was thereafter invited to a local camp put on by Nigerian-born 2006 NBA Draft pick Ejike Ugboaja. Ugboaja was selected in the second round by the Cleveland Cavaliers, but played the entirety of his career overseas. To give back, he hosts this basketball camp in his native land.
“You already know I hated it because I was horrible. It was weird,” Abdulsalam said about the camp. “I loved soccer, that was my first love, so moving to basketball; I used to always foul a lot, doing weird stuff, I couldn’t understand it.”
But what the big man did have going for him was height and good feet. His background in soccer was indirectly paying dividends in a foreign game.
Ugboaja, the man running the camp, had connections with high school and college coaches all throughout the United States. They linked Abdulsalam up with Green Forest Academy in Decatur, Ga., and that’s where he got his start in playing competitive basketball.
Without his parents and sister, Abdulsalam was making the 17-hour trip from Nigeria to the U.S. to begin a new life. He bounced around different homes, living with coaches and teammates while trying to build a basketball reputation and make it on his own. But through AAU, he met his best friend Quincy Carter, and Quincy’s mother Caron. They were more than happy to take him in, and that’s where he’s been living since his freshman year of high school. Abdulsalam’s family actually came over and met them two months after he started living there, and they gave them the blessing of taking care of him.
However, before that, the unknown of making this long expedition was scary. Abdulsalam’s mom was nervous, but his dad thought it’d help him.
“My mom definitely pampered me a lot so my dad and I felt like I’d be able to become a man. It was scary at the beginning,” Abdulsalam said. “It was tough. I was tall so people just thought I was going to be good at basketball but I’ve never played this stuff before. We’d play AAU games and I’d just be horrible. It made me more hungry to get good.”
But when he initially struggled with adapting to the sport, Abdulsalam continued to hate it. Something within him though just wouldn’t let him quit. The whole point of his voyage to the U.S. was to chase this goal.
“After a while it clicked, ‘I’m here now.’ There’s a lot of opportunities with it. If I could do this, they (his parents) don’t have to pay for college,” Abdulsalam said. “Regardless if I like it or not, I’m going to figure it out.”
After a while, he did figure it out. He started to improve and fell in love with the game. Come his sophomore year of high school he was really gaining traction, fielding a number of Division I college offers. Come his senior year, he transferred to Link Year Prep in Missouri to play at the highest level of prep basketball in preparation for college.
Then when he committed to UNCG, his basketball expedition came full circle. He met his goals, he earned a free education, he made his parents proud. One of the most important people in his life was alive to see it all, his father Saka. This past May, Saka passed away, but he’ll forever live on with Abdulsalam.
“My pops was really huge in my life…my freshman year I thought I was going to play… It was a shock to me I could not get any of the defensive stuff. It was frustrating as hell,” Abdulsalam said. “I talked to him after every game. He said I’m on a good team, there’s juniors and seniors that know the whole system. It’s hard to play over them. He told me patience is the biggest thing. Your time is going to come. Stay hungry and stay ready.”
Abdulsalam followed his guidance and today, Saka would be proud. Ahead of the 2020-21 season, the Spartans have named Abdulsalam a team captain. He’ll be one of 12 returnees from last year’s 23-win team and he will be expected to continue leading this successful way.
Now for all that his family did for him, he hopes that he can one day return the favor.
“I want to play pro somewhere,” Abdulsalam said. “I feel like all this work is being put into it, so it’d be crazy for me not to make some sort of money or take care of my family with it.”
