TORONTO -- Who is Karim Mané?
It’s a question opponents, NCAA coaches, NBA agents, Canada Basketball evaluators and high school coaches have asked themselves before. It’s also a question the entire basketball world will soon be asking if his name is picked in the 2020 NBA Draft Wednesday because he’s endeavouring to do something that seems so unlikely that nobody has ever tried it before – going directly from CEGEP hoops in Quebec to the world’s greatest basketball league.
Twenty-year-old Mané was born in Dakar, Senegal and since the age of seven he’s grown up in Montreal, where his family immigrated to. The product of Vanier College, Mané now stands six-foot-six with a seven-foot wingspan.
ESPN rated Mané a five-star prospect and he had scholarship offers from over 30 schools including Michigan State, Memphis, DePaul, Marquette and Pittsburgh. But he had goals beyond the NCAA and so decided to take the antithetical approach and forgo college.
As such, this past summer, after speaking with more than 15 NBA teams, Mané signed with an agent and declared for the draft.
His story has shades of Toronto Raptors all-star Pascal Siakam and Canadian soccer superstar Alphonso Davies in it -- blending a quick basketball ascension with an immigrant-to-national team prodigy story.
Basketball wasn’t just a hobby for Mané growing up, it helped the new Canadian deal with the culture shock.
“I think the one thing that really, really helped me get into the Canadian culture was sports. So, for me, during recess, playing, that's really how I got friends,” he said in a recent interview.
And as the years went by, basketball went from assimilation tool to passion project.
“I was just playing just to be around them, but at the same time, I was playing soccer, so I wasn't really taking basketball seriously. At the age of 16, that's really when I had to switch [full-time],” he added.
Mané saw himself in the NBA well before it was close to happening, telling multiple coaches that it was his goal. Some chuckled at the notion, while others, like Vanier coach Andy Hertzog, opted to pay attention to what the young man was saying.
This is because while he’d heard other players say the same thing, Hertzog quickly realized that Mané was the rare athlete who was actually willing to put in the intense work required.
“He's one of the few [student athletes] who not only does what he needs to do to get there, both on and off the basketball court, but you never have to follow up or ask him again. … He's very, very goal-oriented and he will do anything to achieve his goals.”
Herzog believes the high expectations Mané has for himself come from his family.
“His parents do not take it easy on him, and they expect quite a bit of him,” said Hertzog. “We see that with a lot of first-generation Canadians here. Their families have come here to better themselves and so their children can have a better life, but they expect them to work hard to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Mané’s quest to make the NBA has impacted another Vanier alum – Dion Buckley.
The school’s former-point-guard-turned-Concordia-University-assistant-coach trains Mané, waking up at 5 a.m. to get the burgeoning prospect to the gym for a 2.5-hour training session, and sometimes adding another session late in the evening after Mané has finished practice with the Vanier squad.
Their late-night sessions are legendary in Montreal, especially, as the story goes, the instance when Mané immediately called Buckley after winning his second provincial championship to see if he could get access to a gym to get shots up because he wasn’t satisfied with how he played. Buckley, who was at the game and had just reached his car, tried to convince Mané to take the night off and celebrate with his teammates but the youngster won that battle and after making some calls, Buckley got the key to the gym. The pair got in at midnight and the session lasted until 3 a.m.
It’s because of that dogged work ethic that Mané’s basketball ascension was so rapid.
“By the end of his first year, he had seven Division I offers, from what we would call mid-major schools. Then he went to a tournament with an AAU team, Canada Elite, in Kansas City in April 2019, the first tournament of that season. He outplayed some top-10 recruits, rated recruits in the United States, and then things went crazy,” Hertzog recalled.
It was then that Hertzog – not only his coach but a practicing lawyer – also became Mané’s de facto manager.
“There were two or three days I couldn't get any work done because I was on the phone all day long with NCAA coaches,” he said. “We have an annual workout for university recruiters from the NCAA and from U Sports in Canada. For a single workout on a Saturday, we had 12 NCAA Division I schools … Patrick Ewing created a stir when he came in, Tom Izzo, Danny Manning.”
And the interest just kept building: “We had 16 NBA teams at a tournament game we played in the United States last winter.”
And despite the fact that he lost most of his last season in CEGEP to a thigh injury, the interest in Mané continued to grow, and not everyone played by the rules.
“He was approached by an NBA agent in Cyprus while he was with Team Canada who offered to take him to lunch and told him it wouldn’t affect NCAA eligibility,” said Hertzog. “He knew better and he just said, ‘Here's my coaches’ number, call them.’”
Mané was the pride of Vanier College, but his father, Moustapha, was particularly proud when he saw his son represent Canada at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup.
Moustapha first fell in love with Canada and the idea of one day living in the country at the age of twelve.
“I saw a book about Canada and the seasons, the snow, the leaves falling,” Moustapha said.
Before coming to Canada, however, Mané’s father already got used to some cold weather and had taken a risk before. Moustapha left Senegal and attended Donetsk State University from 1989-1994 after a Prep Course in Belgorod in 1988 in what the Soviet Union was then.
But that doesn’t mean his eventual transition to Canada from Senegal was easy because of that past experience.
“We had to start everything, to buy things for home, even a bed for where we can sleep. It was not easy and for myself it was a challenge to find a job,” recalled Moustapha, who now proudly beams that he works for Hewlett Packard in IT.
One of the driving forces behind the Mané family’s move to Canada was education. As such, it’s no surprise that Mané excels academically, too. He has exceptional marks (close to Ivy level) and tutors other student athletes in English, his third language.
And he does it all with an appreciation for what his parents gave up to allow him to have this kind of opportunity.
“I have a goal,” said Mané. “And my goal was not to go to my [high school] prom, so I didn't go. … I don't think I'm missing out on anything. I'm doing what I want to do.”
Of course, part of this goal is to excel in the NBA, but that’s not all. Mané is hoping to join not just the growing list of African-born players or Canadian players but Montrealers, specifically, who are having themselves a career in the NBA.
“I think we have a lot of good prospects coming out of the city,” said Mané. “You see guys like Chris Boucher, Luguentz Dort in the league. So, we have talent over here. This is about exposure.”
Many other Montrealers are taking that advice to heart. This year alone Mané’s trainer, Buckley, has spent some time training Eze Dike (Yale), Wilguens Exacte (NBA Academy Mexico), Anthony Gibson-Maxwell (Lincoln Prep), Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Clemson), To Randriasalama (Brebeuf/North Eastern), Samuel Chaput (Monmouth), Jahmyl Telfort (Northeastern), Christian Payawal (Brookwood), Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall), Damion Squire (UC Davis) and Jefferson Koulibaly (Washington State).
But of late, most of Buckley’s time has been dedicated to Mané. Justifiably so, as he had one more test to ace, the NBA Draft combine which was conducted virtually due to COVID-19.
Mané was put through two days of medical testing by NBA-sanctioned doctors sourced locally. Then there was the on-court portion of the audition where he cemented his claim as a legit NBA prospect, impressing in a number of drills.
Beyond that, his measurables speak for themselves. You won’t find many point guards with his kind of size and length, after all. But according to his coach, it’s the intangibles that set him apart.
“There are no character issues absolutely at all that you have to worry about. You don't have to worry about drugs or alcohol or partying or whatever else or getting into any kind of trouble. This is the type of young man you want to marry your daughter,” Hertzog said. “He's self-disciplined.
“The only thing is he might drive your coaching staff a little crazy at times. ‘Coach, can you get into the gym with me and help me work on my game?’ That's the only problem you'll ever have.”
Speaking of the gym, that’s where Mane plans to spend draft night. No big party. No fancy reception. He’ll be working out. Maybe because in his mind, he’s already made it.
“Do you have any doubt that you’ll play in the NBA,” Sportsnet asked Mané.
“No doubt,” he deadpanned.
And we should probably believe him.
