This thing happens with refugees ALL the time. This thing happens in some african countries ALL the time and it's the common thing. Refugees with no papers claim to be underage to get asylum easier and get more benefits. The difference is it doesn't matter most of the time. Noone cares. It only matters with professional athletes.
1) Yes it happens in his country and his cousin did it. There is no evidence that he did it. Why is this so difficult to understand? There is no reason to link the two anymore. It's not ok to accuse him of this anymore. He's had significant injuries and has lost athleticism because of it. There is a LEGITIMATE explanation for why his play is the way it is. Also, there are many people whose play falls off the face of the earth for no reason whatsoever. Maybe he's just an alcoholic like Ty Lawson? Also, it was simply easier playing with 2 superstars like Westbrook and Durant. Of course he would play better. More importantly, why would he not just come to the NBA earlier? This is a kid that knew he wanted to be an NBA player. Why wait and then lie about his age? You're basically saying that a teenage Ibaka and whoever was taking care of him had the sense to falsify a birth certificate in order to give himself 3 years head start on training? Does that sound smart? Does it sound like the likely behavior of someone whose mother is dead and father in prison at that point? It all doesn't make sense. Like I said about the sister-****ing. You cannot associate people just because it happens around them. We've seen all the evidence. It's garbage. Unless some new info comes up, this case is CLOSED. You are just propagating racial stereotypes at this point. 2) Lebron's age has been the subject of scrutiny. Which proves my point. Awesome that you brought it up.
Ibaka ain't 27. You're crazy if you think he's 27. Black people usually appear younger. Black don't crack and all that. Ibaka is supposed to be younger than westbrook and curry, but he looks five or ten years older. His appearance, behavior, and his numbers all suggest he's about five years older than he says. Looking at his numbers when he was 23, he should be a top ten player right now. He should be right there with harden, durant, and westbrook. So why isn't he? Because he's declining, due to age
I don't give a crap if you believe me or not. You live in your nice home in a city in the usa and I live right next to the sea borders of the EU where thousand of refugees come with boats every single year. I have heard local policemen , coast guards and social workers describe how the interviews go to get asylum or entry. I have even heard refugees admit that they have bought their papers. Oh and a good deal of them are africans btw. Fact is nba teams believe it and that's why Ibaka wrote this article. Oh and about the Roma, if you don't know their situation don't speak please. This child Maria, was an illegal adoption by another Roma in Bulgaria. If the illegal adoption wasn't reported, she would have gotten her papers later when she went to school. Don't illegal adoptions happen in the USA too? Does that mean that the majority of the USA citizens don't have credible birth certificates? You are right now equating the situation in USA with the situation in african countries where the MAJORITY of people don't have birth certificates in the first place. .
If I'm spending 80 million, I have better ways to judge a person than age. Health, hard work, injuries, these things matter. The idea that everyone is the same based on certain number of years is a joke. You need a rough indication and then use real metrics. I don't care if he's 15 years old right now, he looks slow and losing athleticism and that's what will guide my decision. Oh btw there are racist people in Spain too. It's in all countries.
Ibaka left the Congo at the passport age of 17 for Europe. NOT 14 or 15. He played in the second division of France. I wonder what's more appealing to an nba team to draft someone. A 23 year old playing in the second division or a 17 year old..hm...
And he made a child during that time, he went to the US unbeknownst to that, then was later informed.
He could end all the speculation if he would just produce his long form birth certificate. What is he hiding?
sorry but age matters. NBA players have in all the history of the sport, a carreer projectory. There are some freak exceptions but 99% of them when they are after 31 or 32 their loss of athleticism makes them much less effective. When you are an NBA team you give contract for many years based on age. That's why some not good players get big paydays when they are young. Teams count on future potential to get better. A 28 year old with a 4 year contract, teams can count that they will get his prime years. A 32 year old with a 4 year contract, teams know that the last 1 or 2 years of his contract will get much less because of age. It's the reason that right now Toronto doesn't want to give a 4 year contract to Lowry their all star pointguard.
Wow, this seems to be a systematic problem with you. 1) I don't live in the usa, thanks for assuming again. I have lived in many countries. I've lived in Turkey which is full of refugees. I lived in Germany shortly, also lots of refugees. I live in a diverse country right now, an amount of diversity which would be very shocking to a Greek person. In fact, there are more foreigners than citizens in my country. Yes I've been to Greece too. And America. And I've been to Egypt btw. Where you can get a fake birth certificate, but you didn't know that did you? Of course refugees buy papers. What does this have to do with anything we're talking about? IIRC Ibaka was not a refugee when he moved. He simply went and got a job. There is no evidence he forged his age. He was trying not to get killed and taking care of his grandmother while practicing basketball with his father's friend. 2) I don't need to know about Roma history. I already know how they are treated and spoken about in many European countries. The point is, the system failed to verify it because someone tried to cheat the system. So now the whole system must lose its credibility, just like you did with "almost all" African countries right? 3) I don't know anything about adoption in the USA. I'm not equating the situations. I'm equating your mindset. Your thought process is that if the system lacks credibility, then all under it are guilty by association till proven innocent. I've never heard of someone screaming that they tried to be older in their birth certificate - which is an equally common result in war-torn countries btw. But no, for SOME REASON, the allegations tend to be on the criminal mal-intent side ofcourse. lol Give me a break. I'm done with this. I'm not going to sit here and continue to give time to someone who is arguing it's legitimate for her to question the age of Serge Ibaka because people in his country can bribe officials. Because Ibaka was sitting on gold huh. Because when it suits us we compare him to refugees, and when it doesn't suit us he is a rich Congolese prince bribing officials. lol Thanks and goodbye.
oh please..my mindset? Didn't I just post in the first page that noone doubts Embiid's age? You know , Embiid who is another african player? One would think if I was prejudged against all africans I would scream that Embiid is 26 now. What does where you have travelled or gone to and the diversity in these places has anything to do with false papers exactly? Do you live in the borders? The points of actual entry? The point zero of most falsefications of documents?
So because one player wasn't accused, so it means it's not racist? When I'm referring to your mindset, I'm talking about you took away the credibility of Serge Ibaka just because in Congo some government officials can be bribed. And it's ironic you say this as a Greek person, because you and I both know what Western Europeans say about Greeks and their government. No lessons learned I guess. You said that I live in the USA to imply that I'm far from this. I'm explaining to you that you once again pre-judged, and I have lived as close to refugees as you have, and still neither you or I are experts on the subject. And even if I were living far away, it doesn't mean in 2017 that you are more educated about it. There are ignorant people at point zero, and knowledgable people thousands of miles away. I have hear all kinds of stories from European newspapers that are xenophobic and hateful, no one is immune from this. If anything, there is more negativity and lies about it in the places that deal with more refugees.
Ersan is a white player from Europe and he is in the same boat as Ibaka in age rumours. I don't have concerns about Dieng's age or Mudiay's (who was born in Zaire). It has nothing to do with racism. It is not xenophobic. It is the reality of some third world countries. I don't believe people here claim that most citizens in war torn Congo or Sudan or West africa or Somalia when they are born they get birth certificates. It's the reality of these countries. These people lack much more important things than a paper where it says their date of their birth. In fact instead of xenophobic I commend these players from making their way out and becoming successful. Birth certificates mean absolutely nothing except in proffesional sports. BUT we are talking about million of investment. You hire someone and give him 15 or 20 million a year to perform athletically. Athleticism has to do wtih biological age.
I wouldn't expect teams to publicly question a player's age. I would think there are rules against doing that. Whatever his age actually is, his productivity curve does not match his purported age. He should be at his physical peak at age 27, and it appears that he peaked 3 years ago.
Or it is a hiatus. Given he was traded couple of times, couple of different coaches, I would expect him to have problems settling.
