Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Pole, Pole, Hasheem Thabeet

I'll bet you haven't been to Makongo Secondary School on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Either East Africa is out of your way or you were discouraged when you found AK-47s at the entrance.

Well, Makongo is where Hasheem Thabeet began his journey to beat Ricky Rubio in the 2009 draft, and luckily for us, Nathan Stormzand toured the campus on September 10.

On his tour, Stormzand learned that Hasheem Thabeet wanted to quit basketball 30 minutes into his first practice.

The coach at Makongo (now deceased) told Thabeet "pole, pole" which translates literally to "slowly, slowly" and is also an idiom that means "You're 7'3."

Here's the hoop where Thabeet first quit playing basketball.

When Stormzand arrived at Makongo, he was greeted by armed guards with AK-47s protecting Makongo's stockpile of future second string centers.

Like anyone in this situation, Stormzand announced that he was reporting for one of the top Memphis Grizzlies fan blogs and was quickly introduced to Makongo's Headmaster (Mr. Silus M.), PE Teacher (Mr. Kapanda), and Athletic Director (Mr. Bogoyu).

This is one of five photos that Stormzand was not required to delete. Please do not use it to sabotage the school.

Surprisingly, the school officials were happy to talk at length about Tanzania's most famous Twitterer.

They told Stormzand that Thabeet transferred to Makongo because of it's academic reputation. However, when Thabeet arrived, he was already taller than any other student or teacher. As a result, Makongo, whose Alumni play basketball, soccer, and volleyball professionally around the world, quickly researched sports where height is an advantage.

This is what "Cooler than Memphis" looks like.

Though Makongo's team was never great while Thabeet played, Thabeet steadily improved, according to the Athletic director, and by the end of his time at Makonga, Thabeet was asked to play for a regional team in Kenya.

A few years later, UConn posters hang on the walls of the Headmaster's office.

Makongo staff consistently allowed Stormzand to keep pictures of this hoop.

As Stormzand left Makongo, the school officials asked Stormzand to sign the guest book and to please send basketballs when he returned to the US.

As Stormzand signed his name, he saw Thabeet's signature from a visit three weeks earlier. As part of Thabeet's campaign for Unintentional Comedy All-NBA First Team, Thabeet listed Springfield, MA as his home.

You can see that the rough surface of the court slowed the development of Thabeet's ball-handling skills.

Nathan Stormzand would like to thank the entire staff of Makongo for being far too forthcoming, a shady yet entrepreneurial taxi driver named Idi for conveying him safely around Dar, and ketchup-sized packages of Konyagi for inspiriation.

11 comments:

Lurch said...

Predictions for tonight? grizz by double digits? The line is Grizz +2.5 Is detroit really going to be that bad this year? Will Thabeet be intimidated by a man with no body hair? Damn, I'm excited. Nice post by the way, funniest post in a while.

David Jones said...

I predict Detroit will be terrible.

They are a team that consists entirely of shooting guards.

That said, two of our shooting guards are injured...

I think we'll win, and I'll take the over.

You thought this was funnier than my Episode 3 comparison?

J-Bo said...

Nice picks David...

Lurch said...

very, very much so.

Lurch said...

So, three six was on the Chris Vernon show today since they are performing at the game tonight and Chris asked them if they knew any of the players. Any guesses as to who the only Grizzly they know is? That's right Zach Randolph. They have known him for a while because of mutual friends, awesome.

Sam said...

What are we going to give the new all-star Gasol away for? I predict two first rounders, cash, and the rights to Eric Montross.

David Jones said...

I don't think you're an all star when you're blown out by 20 against a team without a point guard.

We're one game closer to answering the question: Will Iverson Start?

Sam said...

He'll be an all-star as soon as he gets traded somewhere good, just ask his brother. 21 and 15 on the Grizz means an easy all-star selection once you're a Laker.

Lurch said...

iverson will be starting before the end of our 5 game road trip.

Alex Sather said...

Great blog!

Curt said...

Exciting news: I saw on Hammad Haddadi's facebook that Wednesday night is Iranian heritage night at the game. You are so lucky David.