Hasheem Tabeet

Zion · Jun 27, 2009

Grizzlies top pick Thabeet looking to do great things, both on and off the court

He wore a tan shirt and gold earrings and a green bracelet on his right wrist.
The bracelet was fashioned from an unfinished diamond and green malachite.

"It's made by Russell Simmons," said Hasheem Thabeet. "If you buy it, money goes back to Africa."
So this is what he wears. This is why he plays.

"There are a lot of people in this world who need an opportunity," Thabeet said. "I want to help to give them a better life."

Which sure beats playing for a 15-room crib, doesn't it? Or for the strippers and the cars?

I have no idea if the Grizzlies' first-round draft pick is going to become -- as predicted by Tony Barone, the Grizzlies' director of player personnel -- a "change-the-game type of guy."

But I know I'm going to be pulling for him, and not just because the whole losing-50-plus-games-a-year thing is getting old.

Thabeet has big dreams. Dreams that do not involve burning through as much loot as he possibly can.

"I want to put smiles on people's faces," he said, Friday.

How can you not pull for that?

Or for his saga. His impossible saga. Or for the way he says -- over and over again -- that he is blessed.

He is blessed to be the on the verge of making millions. He is blessed to be in the NBA.

He is blessed to have started where he started and to have wound up in this steamy city -- "it is hotter than Africa," Thabeet noted -- posing with a new Memphis Grizzlies jersey.

Skeptics say Thabeet has a long way to go before he'll be an NBA All-Star.

Not if you compare it to how far he's come.

Understand, nobody plays basketball in Tanzania. The Tanzanian national team has qualified for the all-Africa tournament only once.

Just seven years ago, Thabeet was a really tall soccer player. A coach at his school told him he should try basketball.

"He told me to dunk it, I dunked it," Thabeet said. "He told me to shoot a foul shot, I made it."

The journey got considerably harder after that.

It has taken Thabeet to three countries and six cities. It has taken him from Los Angeles to Mississippi to Houston to Storrs, Conn., and now here.

"I've had to trust a lot of people," Thabeet said. "I lived with a host family in Houston, I lived with a host family in Mississippi, I lived with a host family in Los Angeles.

"I remember flying from Tanzania to Los Angeles. Someone was holding a sign that said Hasheem, and I had to follow him."

Through all this, Thabeet turned himself into a feared basketball player, a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.

Now the Grizzlies hope he can do in the NBA what he did in the Big East. They understand that all Thabeet's high-minded aspirations won't help him with the task.

But they understand something else, too.

"He can't go back and do anything unless he's a very, very good player," said Grizzlies owner Mike Heisley. "If you want to be a leader of your people, if you want your people to look up to you, then you better come back a winner."

Thabeet nods. He will be a winner. He knows what is riding on this.

He also knows that he is -- here it comes again -- "truly blessed."

Take his new clothes, for instance. Once, he could never get clothes to fit.

"Nowadays," he said, "I'm capable of just making a phone call and getting a suit.

"Back then, all the shoes I get, they're so uncomfortable, shoes that are so tight. Now you choose what you want, try all the shoes. If they don't fit you, you tell them, 'No, I don't want this.'"

What a country, eh? What a world.

A boy can grow up in Tanzania, become a basketball star in the United States and buy any shoes he likes.

How can you not pull for this story? How can you not pull for a player whose spirit even comes through in tweets?

Yes, tweets. Thabeet twitters, of course. He uses a lot of exclamation points.

And after being selected with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft, the man from Tanzania twittered his gratitude: "God is good!!!!"
Click to expand...

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/27/big-dreams/

Josephduyho03 · Jun 27, 2009

He would end up to be an average NBA player his whole career.

Offensive game is below average

Defensive game is above average.

This guy is a good defender but that is basically his game. So I think he would be an average player in the Nba for years to come.

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