Ibidun Alison got out of his car in a bustling market in Lagos, Nigeria and was immediately swarmed by eager vendors. “Mom, mom, come buy from me!” they shouted. “Buy from me!”
Allison, an actress in her seventies at the time, looked over the group and saw a figure rising above the rest.
His name was Ruben Chinyelu.
He was 14 years old and stood around 6-8.
Alison couldn’t believe her eyes. What was this guy doing here? Why was he selling clothes? He maneuvered through the crowd to find her.
“Do you play basketball?” He asked Chinyelu.
He smiled and laughed, as he did every time someone asked him that question.
“I’m serious,” Alison said. “You can go to school playing basketball. You can continue your education.”
This attracted Chinyelu’s attention. The idea of ​​playing basketball never struck him this way as a possible ticket to a better education. And, for some reason, it was a different chord from Alison. Chinyelu had never played basketball before in his life. But suddenly he felt compelled to pursue it. “I just think everything happens in God’s timing,” she says.
It was the summer of 2018. Six years later, Chinyelu is 6-11 as a sophomore at the University of Florida. He transferred from Washington State University, where he played in all 35 games last season and finished fourth in the Pac-12 in blocks.
Growing up in the eastern region of Nigeria, Chinyelu was six years old when he lost his father. Her mother raised her and her three older sisters, emphasizing discipline and education above all else. Chinyelu did not play any sports in childhood, even football, which is the most popular sport in Nigeria. Instead, he focused entirely on his schoolwork and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor.
That all changed one afternoon in 2018, when Alison, who Chinyelu now calls her grandmother, walked into her brother’s shop. Less than a week later, Chinyelu went to the National Stadium to sign up to join the Raptors Basketball Academy. Despite his inexperience and rail-thin frame, he made an immediate impression on his new coach, Charles Ibeziakor.
“I saw something that was different from other guys who come to learn basketball,” Ibeziakor says. “I saw that this guy was going to be a potential player, a prospect because of his hard work. He did not give in.”
Chinyelu’s discipline shifted from academics to basketball. If I do that, I’m all over ithe said to himself. The team practiced Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon during the summer, but Chinyelu would come to the court at 6 a.m. for extra work. He trained individually with Ibeziakor every Sunday and watched YouTube tutorials to tackle the basics. Soon, his dream was to make it to the NBA.
Within a year, Chinyelu was selected to represent Nigeria at the 2019 FIBA ​​U16 Africa Championship. He averaged 12.3 points and 17.6 rebounds (a tournament best) to help his team finish third. “He was one of the best,” Ibeziakor says. “From there, I knew this guy was going to go places.”
Even before his debut with the youth team, Chinyelu had interest from high schools in the United States, but his visa application was rejected by the embassy. Eight times. And Chinyelu never really knew why. He was hurt but fearless. He just had to find a new way. “If I cry or get angry about it, I’m just doubling down on the problem,” she says. “I never doubted myself.”
Coach Ibeziakor is also a scout for NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center in Saly, Senegal. The Academy was established in 2017 to provide top high school aged youth from across the continent with the tools they need to pursue the future of the sport. Chinyelu arrived in 2021, much stronger after training at home during the pandemic. He now had access to state-of-the-art equipment and was surrounded by the best young players in Africa, all of whom shared his ambition to reach the next level. In the school’s multipurpose room, where students eat, watch TV and socialize, the walls are decorated with pictures of African players who have made it to the NBA, a constant reminder of the goal they are all chasing.
Under expert guidance from staff members such as technical director Roland Houston and head coach Alfred Aboya, Chinyelu improved dramatically at the academy. “They have plays. At home, we don’t have plays,” Chinyelu describes. “Just go play basketball, grab the rebound, pass the ball, make baskets. It was a different thing to get breakdowns, extra training, when to train, how to maintain sleep. In the academy, they taught us not only about basketball, they taught us how to be a basketball player and also how to be a man. Because it all works together.”
Chinyelu started the 6:00 a.m. Club with coach Aboya, a morning workout ritual that was eventually joined by his teammates, who used to report to the gym at 7:00 a.m. “He’s a tireless worker,” Aboya says. “He’ll catch you so you can handle him.”
The academy participates in showcases and exhibitions around the world, and Chinyelu also participated in the 2022-23 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season, averaging 5.4 points and 7.9 rebounds for Stade Malien. Since he started so late, his game, especially in attack, is still being polished, but Chinyelu always brings energy and intensity. According to former academy teammate Seifeldin Hendawi, he becomes “a different person” on the court. “Ruben’s game is so emotional,” continued Handauy, a freshman at Loyola Chicago. “Super aggressive. When he comes between the lines, he simply forgets everything. He doesn’t care. He’ll hit people, destroy frames.”
Hendawi remembers one game, a two-two-two game, when Chinyelu “just went crazy” going up against Nigerian and current Louisville big man Emmanuel Okorafor. The trash talk was flowing and the game was getting increasingly physical. At one point, Chinyelu dropped a vicious knife and let out a scream so loud that it startled Hendau and other spectators. “The gym was shaking,” Hendavi recalls with a smile. Houston eventually had to step in to calm things down a bit. “I’m him, Coach.” Chinyelu yelled at Houston, punching him in the chest. “I am him.”
That image is in stark contrast to Chinyelu off the floor. He’s soft-spoken, polite and eloquent, his comments laced with the same kind of inspirational phrases enshrined in Academy classrooms.
“Rome was not built in a day.”
“The easy way is not always the way.”
“The only thing I can control is the present.”
“I know that something that’s meant to be, will definitely happen.”
He has a calming presence that could easily be predicted to translate to a great bedside manner. While his main goal remains to make it to the NBA, Chinyelu is also studying to become a dentist and plans to take summer classes to finish school if he leaves for the draft soon.
Chinielu joins a talented Florida team (ranked 20th in ESPN’s current rankings) and should take on a bigger role this season after averaging 13.8 minutes per game for Washington State. The Gators have some solid frontcourt options, but Chinyelu is projected to start under center. He arrived on campus in early June after a short trip back to Africa during which he visited family in Nigeria and caught Rwanda’s BAL final.
Watching his first coach Ibeziakor today, he is not surprised by Chinyelu’s character. “Because I know the kind of person Reuben is,” she says. “I know Ruben will work extra hard to get there to play in the NBA. And I believe he will play (there) one day.
Photos via Getty Images.
