Now a full-fledged NBA player with the Milwaukee Bucks, Guinean winger Mamadi Diakité had to fight to achieve his dream of becoming a member of the world’s best basketball team. From Conakry to Virginia, via Orlando and Wisconsin, the slim basketball player took the shortcut to today be a teammate of the double MVP, the Greek of Nigerian origin Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It may be a detail for you, but for him it means a lot. On April 21, a photo of Mamadi Diakité toured all the smiles on social networks and marked the realization of a dream: the signing of a guaranteed NBA contract.
After several weeks of instability with a “two-way contract”, an uncertain “two-way contract that can be cut at any time by the franchise, the native of Conakry is now at the table with 380 players in the best league in the world by signing a 3-year guaranteed contract with Milwaukee Bucks. “I will never forget that day, when you sign such a contract, you realize you are joining an elite, he smiles again today, it’s a huge opportunity to finally force myself. In the highest level of my profession, and that work always pays ”.
But the 24-year-old’s career has not been the easiest, and his arrival in the North American league did not come with royal funds, like other African players who now hold the top of the league.poster, like Joël Embiid.
“I was just thinking about football”
Mamadi Diakité, like all children, is rocked by another round ball. The young Diakité plays football with his friends in his Conakry neighborhood and far from thinking that basketball would be his future. “I was a child who would run everywhere, I only thought about football, he remembers, it was only when I became a young teenager that I saw that my body was less adapted to this. Sports, and that I let myself be tempted by basketball The Diakité family is the son of a research director at the WHO and an obstetrician, and he is trying to find a way to do the best possible school course.
After a discussion with his sister, he decides to get people talking about him and tries to get attention by creating a Facebook page where he posts videos about his achievements on the basketball courts, hoping to be discovered. By a recruiter and cross the Atlantic to get a scholarship. “It was like throwing a bottle into the sea. One day I received a message from a US citizen, Hassan Fofana, who told me that he could help me continue my studies there and get a scholarship to go to high school. It’s a train that only runs once in a lifetime, and I went after it, he recalls, heading for Virginia and Blue Ridge High School in St. George.
Getting to the NBA, regardless of cost
Young Mamadi arrives in the United States and does not wait to shine. His slim physique is the joy for school basketball teams, but also for the high jump section. The Guinean shows that he is an athlete with great potential and attracts attention from several universities.
“When I received my first scholarship offers to go to college, I told myself that part of my goal of achieving a university degree was open to me and that I had to make the best possible decisions regarding the curriculum, but also in sports. conditions, because I knew I wanted to be a professional basketball player, ”he explains. His choice fell on the prestigious University of Virginia, which has one of the nation’s best basketball teams. In Charlottesville, he made his mark and in his third season with the Cavaliers (the team’s nickname), he made history by winning March Madness, the final tournament in the NCAA Championship.
“This moment is still one of the biggest events of my young career. “Coming from Africa and becoming one of the only players from the continent to win the university title is quite unique, and it helped me a lot for the future to take the springboard to the next level,” the player analyzes. After completing his studies, he decides to participate in the draft, but will not hear his name called by the league’s vice president, Mark Tatum. The disappointment is there, but Diakité knows that there is a route “bis” to reach the elite.
A chance with the G-League, the NBA’s antechamber
Diakité decides to try his luck in the G-League, the NBA’s antechamber, with Lakeland Magic. He joins his team in the Orlando bubble and maximizes the opportunity that gave him. In 12 games, he scores 18 points and 10 rebounds on average and helps his team win the title. The icing on the cake, he is selected in the tournament’s typical team.
Nearly three weeks later, Milwaukee Bucks sports director Mike Holt contacted him to offer him a “two-way contract.” He accepts on the spot and flies to Wisconsin. There he is taken under the wing of Giannis Antetokounmpo who loves the fighting spirit of the young Guinean. Giannis is like a big brother, he is a person who really helps me a lot, he smiles, we share things together, like the value of work. He is incredibly supportive, I could not have hoped for better “.
“I have never rolled out the red carpet”
After some good performances, the team management offered him the holy grail: to turn his “two-way contract” into a guaranteed contract. The dream of the kid from Conakry becomes a reality despite the difficulties. Here he is a full-fledged player in the workforce, in the middle of a core of teammates connected to the African continent (brothers Antetokoumpo and Jordan Nwora, a young Nigerian international), from one of the favorite teams to win the NBA title.
After all, Diakité keeps its feet on the ground, well aware of the road traveled. “Everything that happens to me is through hard work and self-sacrifice. I’ve never been the most talented guy of my generation, I’ve never rolled out the red carpet. I’m a worker, he says. Before concluding: “I always want more, and I want to do great things, I, the kid from Conakry, by trying to win the NBA title to make my citizens proud.”
.
