Garuba Mission in the NBA

A good summary of what Usman Garuba is now

(2.03 meters, 104 kilos and 19 years old) is offered by

Sergio Scariolo

, Spanish coach and even this season assistant coach at Toronto Raptors:

“He still has to acquire the mechanisms of the game, but at the same time he

has a capacity to make plays that is not available to everyone

”.

It is the first time that the coach directs him with Spain, however, he knew him before from another perspective, that of the teammate who provided him with the eyes of his son, Alessandro Scariolo, born in 2001. Both were part of the Spain Sub -18 who hung the gold in the summer of 2019 with Santi Aldama (Loyola Maryland).

"Usman will do very well

the experience of the Olympic Games

because the need to

adapt to another world is what awaits him when he makes the leap to the NBA

”

, Scariolo continues. A landing that could be close after the Houston Rockets have chosen him in 23rd place in the first round of the 2021 draft. He must negotiate with Real Madrid, and the exit clause is high and rising (three million euros this summer) , but he maintains his plans for an immediate march.

Garuba is not even close to Antetokounmpo before he crossed the pond

to the United States. It is not because of potential, it is clear, but not because of competitive experience, the Spanish more trained than the Greek then, nor by vital trajectory. However,

both their personalities are burned by their unwavering will to compensate their parents for the sacrifice made as migrants

, to raise a family that is described as numerous in Europe and to undertake an adventure as uncertain as it is difficult from Africa , which, finally, has ended up opening a window of opportunities for them, including that of professional basketball.

That journey began

for Usman's and Giannis's parents.

in Nigeria, in the last decade of the last century

, partly forced to escape inequality and lack of opportunity and partly clinging to hope for a better life.

Family adventure and soccer

The Garuba Alari

(father, Mustapha and mother, Betty) arrived in Spain in the late 1990s, although the first stop was Belgium,

coming from Benin City

, in southern Nigeria.

In Madrid, where Usman was born on March 9, 2002

, they settled in Villaverde, in the south of the capital, and from there, for work reasons, to Azuqueca de Henares, in the neighboring province of Guadalajara. Mustapha started working in the Bimbo bakery factory and Betty has done it in the City Council Employment Plan. In 2004, Betty gave birth to her middle brother,

Sediq, today, 17 years old, a very physical forward who in June played a decisive role in Real Madrid's victory in the junior Euroleague final.

against Barça. Character and spirit that runs in the family. The third descendant is a girl, Uki Garuba, 11, who also plays basketball.

A sport that won Usman to the cause by taking him away from football, just like Giannis

. He wanted to be a goalkeeper and there were no places available to register. So

in 2011 he opted for baskets at the Municipal School of Azuqueca

, where the coordinator, David Serrano, its discoverer, has played a fundamental role.

Less than 24 months later,

in the fall of 2013, Madrid chose him

, as Usman himself says. The white quarry does not have teams until child age, with kids who at the beginning of their first season have already turned 12, but he was then

just 11 and was still a youngster, which did not prevent him from entering the gates of Madrid . An exceptional case

. The start of a long-distance race that has run almost at a sprint, setting several precocious records. He still has to grow on the court, but

mentally he has an advantage over most of the players who have come out in this draft

: it comes from rubbing shoulders with the elite and leaving a mark.

His experience in the Tokyo Games and those accumulated in the League and Cup finals in Spain, and in a European playoff on wire against the Turkish Anadolu Efes of Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic, place him in another competitive sphere.

A little, and saving the distance,

as happened in his day to an unparalleled Doncic

.

The roadmap and the learning methodology in the Real Madrid quarry, led by former international Alberto Angulo, have been very similar.

A successful model that works

and attracts potential new stars each year.

More than a

bully

Usman dreams of visiting Nigeria

, the land of his parents, that of his family, a trip that he has not yet been able to undertake due to the saturation of his summers, always with the training teams and now, for the first time, with the absolute in a few Olympic Games with just 19 years.

The culmination of a career ahead of the standards, when at 14 he was already practically measuring what he is today and his wingspan exceeded 215 centimeters

. He always imposed his physique, his energy and athletic quality; Although since he was a child he also learned to stand out for the coordination acquired in a cross in front of his long arms and legs, for the handling of the ball and the ability to pass, for that ease in catching the rebound and running bouncing from field to field to stamp the ball in the opposite ring and for his intelligence, which helped him understand the game faster than some teammates.

He was more than a

bully

and soon showed

an avidity for basketball that drives him to watch games with devotion

, in search of continuous improvement, to copy a gesture or a movement to incorporate into his repertoire.

A self-demand that has sometimes penalized him in the failure and that

in recent months he

has begun to manage better with external professional help

.

Not infrequently he has been seen on the Madrid bench lamenting a bad phase of the game.

"Sometimes we have squeezed too much out of necessity,"

his coach,

Pablo Laso

,

came to recognize

when the boy was still 18 years old.

And almost always responded.

Records of earliness

Process the error and continue

, that is the path that has been set to continue with his permanent adaptation,

shortly in the NBA, and before in his meteoric leaps of category

that led him to win the Eurobasket U-16 and to be the MVP of the tournament with only 14 years, yes, yes, 14, when his rivals had 16, something scandalous in European basketball.

He rounded a triple-double in that 2016 final

(15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks)

only available to Dario Saric and Ricky Rubio

in the previous decade. A trajectory that broke molds, such as when he caught 32 rebounds in the ACB Minicopa final or

debuted in Madrid's first team on October 28, 2018 with only 16 years and 7 months

, very close to the unbeatable Doncic (16 and 2). Either when he hung another gold with Spain, this time in the U-18 with one year less than the marked limit, or he was

the youngest to achieve a double-double in the ACB

ahead of (yes, again) Doncic and Ricky . In that 2019 he was also the junior Euroleague champion.

Despite his evident shyness with the media, he takes on challenges without hesitation, one after another, almost in the same way that he

chains efforts at a pace that most of his adversaries do not even aspire to reach

.

That is now, and not size, its great physical advantage.

Intensity, vigor and powerful legs that give

the engine

displacement

that catapults him and allows him to change the inertia of many games

.

He does it with the fierceness of his rebounds or defending a point guard like Micic, the Euroleague MVP, all over the field.

Either falling behind in a matchmaking change with any of the five opposing players or blocking shots like a Cossack or ...

The shot of three and the explosion before Micic

Air of revolution and a lot of appetite still in full maturity

, at a time when he is very focused on expressing himself eloquently on the court, reading the game and spaces and, above all,

shooting better than three points, where he has shown great advances

in mechanics and speed of execution that give him another dimension as a power forward after just two courses fully integrated into the merengue first squad.

The

Euroleague

is the second major club competition in the world and the

ACB

, the best national league outside the NBA. In both, the

rising star

,

the most outstanding young player

,

has just been named

, and although his impact does not translate only into numbers, his

24 points, 12 rebounds and 30 PIR against the European champions, Efes

, In a key continental quarterfinal playoff match, they set the stage quite a bit. That night we witnessed the howl of the wolf that delimits his territory at a time when his team felt threatened, when his teammates most required it.

In the ACB he has averaged 5.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 18 minutes, and above in the playoff: 6.7 (37% of three) and 5.6. And in the Euroleague, 3.9 points (34% in triples) and 4 rejections in 16:17 on the court. Figures to which he adds that

ability to reduce the rival in the defensive zone and, in attack, to withstand the impact first and then assault the enemy ring

, virtues that place him, and more with his constant evolution, as a good

pick

player

and roll

, very good in the future. He is also notable in cutting from the weak side to assist the ball handler to find the final pass, something he saw his former teammate Gabriel Deck (Oklahoma City Thunder) do very well. Stacks some remarkable numbers, by presence on the track, that were on the way to multiplying in coming seasons ...

Old Europe may not see it. Garuba wants to

continue his mission in America

.