If you told an 11-year-old Pascal Siakam that by the time he was 22 he’d be living in Canada playing professional basketball in the NBA, he would’ve laughed.
The Toronto Raptors power forward grew up in Cameroon and didn’t even like the sport.
Even though he preferred soccer, Siakam played basketball because his three older brothers played. Their father had always dreamt of one of his sons making it to the NBA. The Douala native had some natural ability and was invited to a Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa in 2012, which is when he began changing his tune on the game.
“My sister Vanessa lived in South Africa, and I hadn’t seen her in a few years,” said Siakam, who chronicled his journey to the NBA in The Players’ Tribune Tuesday.
“I thought, ‘A free trip to South Africa to hang out with my sister and all I gotta do is play a little basketball? Why not!’”
NBA stars Serge Ibaka and Luol Deng were guests at the camp, but Siakam had no clue who they were.
“How was I supposed to know who they were? I barely watched the NBA,” he said. “The more I learned about them, though, the more I began to look up to them. They had both overcome incredible odds to make it to the NBA from Africa. In them, for the first time, I saw what was possible if I worked hard enough.”
Siakam was recruited to play at a prep school in Lewisville, Texas called God’s Academy — somewhat fitting considering he spent many of his formative years attending a seminary. From there he caught the eye of New Mexico State.
As a college freshman, Siakam bonded with teammate Tshilidzi Nephawe of Johannesburg, South Africa. Siakam is averaging close to 20 minutes per game with the Raptors so far in his rookie campaign and it wouldn’t have been possible without Nephawe.
“He would go right at me [in practice],” Siakam said. “He would post me up, so I would try to body him. Then he would back me down like I was made of cardboard and score easily. When I would try to do the same to him on offense, he wouldn’t budge.”
Siakam explained that he has always been the type of person who looked to prove people wrong. It helped take his game to the next level. His source of motivation changed in 2014 when his father succumbed to injuries sustained in a car accident back in Cameroon,
“Inside of me, a new fire was burning,” Siakam said. “I wasn’t worried about proving people wrong anymore, or working to get back at the guys who had beaten on me. I was playing for my dad now. I was playing for his dream of having a son in the NBA. I wanted to make him proud and give him this gift.”
June 23, 2016, Siakam’s life changed when the Raptors selected him 27th overall.
“My brothers were crying and screaming, my friends were crying and screaming, I was crying and screaming,” Siakam recalled. “At that moment, more than anything, I wished I could’ve seen my dad’s reaction. My brothers and I huddled together, smiling through our tears. We couldn’t speak, but we didn’t have to. We knew we were all thinking the same thing: We did it.”
Siakam still has some developing to do, but he’s off to a solid start to his NBA career and doesn’t take for granted what it means every time he steps onto the court.
“Just to get the chance to put on a Raptors jersey–seeing the number 43 on the front and my name on the back–feels surreal,” he added. “So I’ve started my own little tradition. Every time I enter the game, I touch the No. 4 on my jersey four times for my dad and three brothers, then I touch the No. 3 three times for my mom and two sisters, then I cross myself for God and point up to the sky. I know my dad is watching.”