Cameroon Calling

More than a decade ago, LUC MBAH a moute created an unlikely NBA path, which Joel Embiid took and pascal Siakam followed. This is the untold story of the rise of Cameroonian ball.

- Jackie MacMullan

On a sticky July afternoon in Cameroon, beads of perspiration dot a young boy’s brow as he paces outside the Yaoundé Sports Palace, plotting his entry. The expansive, asymmetric dome with a sharply pointed roof was a diplomatic gift from the People’s Republic of China, plunked into the city of Yaoundé like a spaceship from another galaxy. The 10-year-old, named Arthur, yells to the guard out front but is told that family and friends are not allowed inside. “But I want to see my brother!” the boy says, his infectious grin creasing his round, sun-kissed face. “You can just let me in, OK?” The guard betrays a hint of a smile but shoos him away.

It is the summer of 2011, and the boy’s older brother, Joel Embiid, has been invited to Luc Mbah a Moute’s prestigious basketball camp, an opportunity that baffes his family. Joel, already 6-foot-10 at age 17, is no hoops player; he’s played organized ball for three months and is scheduled to leave for Europe and train as a candidate for the national volleyball team. His father, Thomas Embiid, a colonel in the military and a former handball champion, wants his eldest son to stick with volleyball. His mother, Christine, upon returning from a shopping holiday to France and learning of Joel’s basketball audition, asks: “Have I been gone that long?”

Outside the complex, Arthur is undeterred, scaling the spiked metal fence that surrounds it, hoping in vain to sneak a bird’s-eye view. He seems to be the only Embiid excited about what is happening inside. Even Joel has doubts, his father’s words still ringing in his ears.

“Nobody plays basketball in Cameroon.”