Luc returns

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Going back to root of dreams
by Michael Hunt
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Posted: Aug. 25, 2009

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was so motivated by an NBA-sponsored camp that he left Africa a week later to enroll in a Florida high school.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was so motivated by an NBA-sponsored camp that he left Africa a week later to enroll in a Florida high school.
Close St. Francis - Luc Richard Mbah a Moute remembers being 15 or so when he left his home in Cameroon to attend a NBA-sponsored camp in Johannesburg.

When it was over, a woman addressed the young players from across Africa.

Mbah a Moute's English wasn't so good, so this is what he thought he heard her say:

"If you see me again, you will have made it."

Typical teenager he was, Mbah a Moute recalls rolling his eyes and thinking, Who is this person and what is she talking about?

Several years later, when Mbah a Moute was interviewing with Milwaukee Bucks general manager John Hammond before the 2008 draft, the memory resurfaced during their conversation.

The woman, Hammond told him, was Kim Bohuny, the NBA's vice president for international basketball operations.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

"It was funny," Mbah a Moute said Tuesday. "Later, I called her and told her I was in the NBA and that I wanted to see her, because until I saw her, the dream was not complete."

In a way, the dream is perpetuating itself.

Next week, the Bucks' small forward will become the NBA's first player to make the jump from camper to counselor in the seven years the league has been involved with Basketball Without Borders, the three-continent program from which gifted players throughout the world have a chance to experience the game from those at its highest level.

Mbah a Moute will return to Johannesburg - accompanied by the likes of Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer and Bob Lanier - to teach and deliver the kind of message no one before had been able to make.

"That's something I'm excited about, to go and tell those kids that I was in their shoes," Mbah a Moute said. "I was sitting right there myself and thinking, 'How can I get to the NBA?'

"I wish there was one guy when I was there who said, 'I was in your shoes.' It would have made it easier for me. It would have given me a lot more hope that, yeah, man, I can make it. If a guy who came to this camp can make it, I can make it, also."

Now, Mbah a Moute can be that guy.

The camp motivated him to the point that he left Africa a week later to enroll in a Florida high school, which led to a UCLA scholarship, which led the NBA. From the time he picked up a basketball, he knew he wanted to be an NBA player. Before the camp, there was no one to tell him how.

"It's a dream," he said. "This past year was a dream come true, especially from my perspective, which is their perspective. The NBA seems so far.

"Here in America, you might have a kid in your neighborhood or city who went to the NBA. You might have an NBA team in your city. Where I'm from, you have to wake up at 3 in the morning to watch a game.

"To come from there and make the NBA is a dream come true. That's what I'm going to tell them, man. I'm going to tell them it's worth the work. I think I've got one of the best jobs in the world and I got that by working hard. I want them to feel the same way and have that, too."

Last February, when Bohuny came to Milwaukee as part of her league tour, Mbah a Moute took her to dinner and they talked about that day in South Africa.

Suddenly, the dream was complete.