Africa a lost continent for NBA?

Hakeem Olajuwon, for all practical purposes, was the first, and he remains the best. Dikembe Mutombo was the next logical step, arriving in the NBA a basketball generation later (in 1991 to Olajuwon's '84). In between, Manute Bol was a fascinating tale, testing the upper bounds of height (7-foot-7) while bringing smiles to our faces by cracking wise, swatting shots or jacking up three-pointers.

The excitement and anticipation that came in their wake made sense. The potential for mining NBA talent in Africa seemed limitless. By 1994, the notion was so mainstreamed that Hollywood jumped aboard with The Air Up There, in which a college coach played by Kevin Bacon turns his recruiting efforts to the continent. A steady flow of African prospects, especially tall prospects, seemed a lot closer than six degrees of separation.

Yet here we are, all these years later, and what was envisioned as a flood has been more of a trickle. From three African-born players who reached the NBA in '89 or before, to nine who arrived in the '90s, to 12 who have begun their NBA careers since '00 (and in some cases, already ended them). Not bad. Encouraging even. But not what many folks expected, either, to still describe as promising what more than a decade ago figured to be called a trend.

Beyond the quantity, there's the quality issue, too. If you were to rank an all-Africa NBA Top 10, it might go something like this:

1. Olajuwon
2. Mutombo
3. Luol Deng
4. Michael Olowokandi
5. Bol
6. DeSagana Diop
7. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
8. Alaa Abdelnaby
9. DJ Mbenga (hey, he won a championship ring this month)
10. Yinka Dare

Technically, one of the top spots could go to Phoenix guard Steve Nash, since Canada's NBA hero and the two-time MVP was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, before his family migrated to British Columbia. Apologies might be in order, too, for Mouhammed Sene, Obinna Ekezie or Pape Sow, depending on your tastes and evaluations. But the point is clear: Africa has not produced an abundance of NBA players because the game there still isn't ready. UConn center Hasheem Thabeet, a native of Tanzania, is the continent's lone representative in this year's draft pool.

"It's slowly starting, where you see it grow," said Masai Ujiri, the Toronto Raptors' assistant general manager, player personnel."But we're still a ways away to see the real potential, to see NBA players coming out of there."

Ujiri, born in Nigeria, is director of the NBA's Basketball Without Borders Africa program, a former player at Montana State who spent six seasons playing professionally in Europe. He is dedicated to growing the game back home, spending most of the offseason (after the Raptors' summer league obligations) in Africa and running two camps annually there.

"Right now it still is a process, where the players come [to the U.S.] for high school and college or they go through the pros in Europe. There still has to be the Hasheem Thabeets of the world, the DeSagana Diops. It's going to take time before it even gets to where facilities and coaching and competition have reached the level where NBA teams are confident drafting players [directly] from over there."

That process has worked well for those able to access it. Thabeet could be picked as high as No. 2 Thursday night after three seasons in the Big East. Chicago's Deng of the Sudan was the seventh player chosen in '04 after just one season at Duke and seemed headed toward All-Star status before facing contract pressures and injuries. Mbah a Moute, from Cameroon, exceeded Milwaukee's second-round expectations as an '08-09 rookie after his three years at UCLA.