Basketball
African Players making serious noise in the NBA
Halfway through the NBA season the usual suspects like LeBron James and James Harden continue to inspire awe with their elite skills, but a handful of African players are charging to the forefront!
Victor Oladipo
© Getty/NBA
The NBA is going through an African Renaissance. The last time the league had this many talented players of African descent; Nelson Mandela was the newly elected president of South Africa, Arsene Wenger started his job as the manager of Arsenal F.C and shiny leather pants were still in fashion.
That was a mighty long time ago.
Ironically, during that decade, the person's mentioned below were still infants. Fast forward twenty years later, these players are laying the foundations of their own legacy.
Victor Oladipo
After the Indiana Pacers traded superstar Paul George for Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, expectations were lower than low for the team's 2017-18 campaign. Oladipo had other plans.
Taking everyone by surprise, the Nigerian-American tweener guard has emerged as a front-runner for the Most Improved Player of the Year award with his impeccable and consistent performance which has steered Indiana into the playoff conversation.
He is recording career highs in points, assists, steals, rebounds and shooting percentages while ranking eighth in points per game and steals per game in the entire NBA. These milestones indicate that he was more than just a role player.
The sudden improvement in his offense is largely due to his changed mindset and physicality. During the offseason, the 25-year-old lost almost 5 kilos and worked on his conditioning and endurance. The results have been positive for a Pacer's team that struggled with offense last season.
On any given night, you can see Oladipo using his speed and agility to get past defenders and to cut into the lane for a floater. If he is locked out the paint, he has no problem stepping back for a perimeter shot. For the first time in his five-year career, he is shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc.
But his value is not only limited to offense. The 25-year-old can also get it done on the other end of the floor. He uses his length to either block shots or reach in for the steal and then can easily push in transition to explode at the rim
Case in point..
As a result, Indiana has established itself as a strong team in the Eastern Conference, winning games against the likes of the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves and the San Antonio Spurs.
Joel Embiid
Embiid set the basketball world ablaze with his social media and on-court antics. In a short span of time, he has gained a reputation for being a troll and has rubbed the likes of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant up the wrong way with his taunting.
But when his phone is down and he is not giving lip, the Cameroonian can ball...
Appropriately nicknamed "The Process", Embiid has spent the past three seasons of his young career battling injuries. For the first two, he was completely out of action with back to back foot and leg injuries. Last year, he made his debut but only played 31 games before sustaining a torn meniscus injury.
During that run, he averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game and the Philadelphia Sixer's won 18 more games than they did the previous year. His excellent play earned him Eastern Conference Player of the Week honours and he was shortlisted as a Rookie of the Year candidate – but lost out to Milwaukee's Malcom Brogdon.
This year, he has improved on those numbers - averaging 25.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.6 steals per game in the month of December whole notching 15 double-doubles this year. But the injury bug still bites...
The 23-year-old center was sidelined for three games in December with a back injury. In total, Embiid has missed a total of eight games and in his absence, the Sixer's have only managed to win one out of seven games.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Antetokounmpo has become a superstar in front of our eyes. The reigning Most Improved Player is continuing from where he left off last year except this time, he is stronger and bolder. Filling up the stat sheet, he currently ranks in the top ten in points, rebounds and steals while ranking in the lower teens in blocks and field goal percentage. His Player Efficiency Rating – a metric which measures a player's per-minute performance and summarises their contributions to one number – is behind James Harden, making him a legitimate Most Valuable Player candidate.
The Nigerian-Greek forward started the season averaging 33.7 points while shooting an astounding 63.2 percent from field and 40 percent from deep. He also added 10.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.7 steals and one block to his stat line.
Antetokounmpo's 748 points through 25 games set a record for the third most points by a Bucks player through the first quarter of the season (behind Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar who holds the two spots).
And he doesn't seem to get tired...
The 6'11 powerhouse is athletic and quick, making him a nightmare to defend. Getting into the lane and exploding at the rim looks as easy as a stroll in the park.
According to NBA.com, he accounts for 35.4 percent of Milwaukee's scoring and almost a third of the team's steals, blocks and rebounds are generated by him.
When he is off the court, the team's production drops on both ends of the floor. When Antetokounmpo is on the sidelines, the Bucks' offensive rating dips from 110 to 100.3 while the defensive rating descents from 105 to 113.6.
If the 23-year-old continues this level of play, Milwaukee might get a one-way ticket to the playoffs.