Raptors’ new centre embraces the moment
Bismack Biyombo left home at age 16 to chase his goal of becoming a pro player
BURNABY, B.C.— There are 16-year-olds for whom the biggest decisions are when to get their driver’s licences, kids who wonder about how they’ll spend Friday night or the weekend or who they might have their eye on as their girlfriend or boyfriend of the moment.
To them, those are the complications of life and they are decisions that weigh heavily. Bismack Biyombo? He sat down with his parents as a 16-year-old and told them he was leaving the comfort of his Republic of Congo home and a loving, caring family to move to Yemen to discover his sporting talents. And to find himself. Biyombo sat at Raptors training camp here Tuesday, a worldly, accomplished, well-spoken grown up 22-year-old with a firm grasp on who he is and what’s important in the world.
“I just wanted to get out there and learn and see how the world is outside of my family,” the new Raptors centre said. “You grow up with your family and it’s great, but you get to live by yourself and understand the meaning of life.
“It was a gamble, but, at the same time, it was a challenge. I told my parents, ‘If I ever fail, I think I will come back to school and finish school and be a good citizen.’
“My goal also wasn’t to go and fail, my goal was to go and do it. I got out there and did what I had to do and I’m thankful it turned out to be the way it did. “I embraced every single moment.” The move — from his home in Lubumbashi with the full blessing of his mother Francoise and his father Francois — started Biyombo on an incredible journey.
He was a teenage basketball phenom in Yemen, turned that into contracts with a handful of organizations in Spain and eventually led him to become the seventh pick in the 2011 NBA draft.
Not to mention leading him to become as grounded a young man as exists in the NBA today. A circuitous life journey, to be sure, but not one filled with even a remote hint of regret.
“My way was supposed to be that way and I think I embraced it and I was thankful for it,” Biyombo said. “Along the way, I’ve met great people and amazing people who have helped me with the process to become the man that I am today and the player that I am today.”
One of those great and amazing people, of course, is Raptors president and general manager Masai Ujiri, whose ties to his African heritage are as strong as Biyombo’s are to his.
They did know each other well when Biyombo was emerging as a promising African talent, but have always had a mutual respect and love for their continent that has endured. Biyombo and Ujiri spent time at clinics and camps and an exhibition game in Africa in the summer ce- menting a bond that transcends basketball.
“I’ll tell you the truth, I love Africa,” Biyombo said. “Obviously, Masai has done an amazing job for a lot of young kids by giving them an opportunity in their life and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish. We have people looking up to us as leaders in Africa and obviously it’s good opportunities to work with all these guys and Masai himself.
“More than anything, we have to accomplish something special with the team more than anything, that’s what I look forward to.”
All because a teenager sat with his mother and father and told them it was time to find out what the world was like. And what he was like. “More than anything, it’s just thanking my parents . . . without my parents, I should not be who I am today,” he said.
“They have helped me from Day 1, they have supported me. I know it wasn’t easy.”