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Ian Mahinmi, Franco-Beninese basketball player about the NBA Africa : “It was the turning point of my career”

 Ian Mahinmi, Franco-Beninese basketball player about the NBA Africa : “It was the turning point of my career”

Retired a few years ago, Ian Mahinmi has not moved away from the basketball courts. Received on the set of the program Actu Matin of Canal3-Benin, this Wednesday 25 January 2023, the Franco-Beninese basketball player answered several questions related to his career, his conversion, the NBA Africa, Basketball Africa League. Read instead !!!

In a concrete way, what happened to make you end your career?

Many things! Already it is 13 years at the highest level. Playing in the NBA is very hard on the body., that's a lot of games. People don't realize it but we have regular seasons at more than 80 matches. Then we have play-offs that start, we can do more 100 games in a season. Next to the regular season, we have international competitions. So that's a lot of games every year. And it's true that at some point in my career I had a lot of injuries.

Repeated injuries that came out of nowhere just as I arrived in Washington and signed my big contract and it's true that we still look very holy but in the end we are not machines. So the body is very challenged and for me it was a bit of a decline. I struggled to regain my strength, but it's true that I retired at 34-35 years. For the majority of athletes, you can ask them questions, in general […] 

AT 35 years you certainly have a lot of experience but you are slower than a young 19 coming years. It also depends on each person's personal ambitions. Me, I have big ambitions, my person as an individual, as a man is not defined just by the player I am on the field, there is everything I want to undertake too. It's just as exciting as what I do in the field.

Injured, not completely cured but want to bring more to his club. Hasn't that also precipitated the parenthesis on your professional career? ?

It didn't rush, I do not think so. These are realities that we players live, that is to say when we get injured, we also have this pressure to come back quickly and above all by being an important player in his team, teammates, the coaches, fans everyone count on us. And it's true that, passionate as we are, we tend not to listen to our physical trainer, our doctor. As soon as you feel physically well, we want to resume activities, we want to get back to basketball, football, no matter. And it's true that sometimes, the body does not follow. This is what happened to me.

 I got hurt, I had an operation, my rehabilitation went well, I also have this ability to regenerate very quickly and I resumed activities too soon. The sequence of games in the NBA makes it a big challenge for the body. What led me to injure my calf. After this injury, I sped things up, I felt good very quickly. Everyone was hoping for my return, what made me come back so quickly. What caused me to hurt myself again. So I had a year where I had two knee operations and a big calf injury..

Finally, I rushed and it took me after that a year and a half or almost two years to find my level. These are decisions that are not easy to manage for us athletes.. We don't think of a month, two or six. We are at time T. If I have a message for all the players, athletes who are injured, you have to take your time. It may be better to sacrifice two or three weeks of rehabilitation to be able to be fit for the duration than to want to resume immediately and then risk another injury..

You hurt yourself, you're off the professional court but you're still in basketball. You promote young Beninese talents through your foundation.  Where did this idea come from??

It's the call of the heart. It's something that's always been part of me. Since the beginning of my career, I have always had this desire to share my passion. I share it best with young people who are passionate, who play basketball, who have aspirations. Have this exchange, for me it is very important. If as a professional player, when we reach the top, whether we want it or not, we are responsible, we become leaders. And the role of a leader, is to be able to inspire. The youngest or the less young are watching us.

I carry a lot of value, through the fields, for me it was the best platform to be accessible, to be able to reach the youth and to be able to inspire. So I did it naturally, my whole career through basketball camps until i asked myself what more can i do.

How I can impact youth, a country, a continent through basketball ? This is where I am at now. I am very proud to be Beninese, that's why I'm coming back, reason i want to build here. Above all, I want to inspire African youth to have careers in sport. We have to get out of the clichés that sport is leisure. Non, a lot of us, live very well from sport. But beyond living very well, we are able to raise a whole group of people around us, with us. So for all Beninese, it's a bit of a message of hope, there is success through sport.

This is what inspired NBA Africa, talk to us now?

It was the turning point of my career. I had in 2020 the opportunity to be a minority shareholder of NBA Africa (The NBA Africa is the basketball regiment on the African continent of the NBA). Now what the NBA did, we are all aware for those who know the NBA, the stages…We have a lot of talents in the NBA who are not ordinary players but super stars who are even African. For example, there is Ochimoa who is from a Japanese mother and a Beninese father.

All that to say that the NBA launched in 2010-2011 offices in South Africa to study the African market because she realized that the talent, the pool comes from Africa. Ten years later, it had the ambition to launch a league that will look like the NBA on the African continent.

This is the Basketball Africa league where the best of African basketball will be played. Before moving to the Basketball Africa League, we will move to NBA Africa. The NBA Africa, it's the NBA Academy. There is currently one in Saly where all the best young basketball players on the African continent are gathered. And it's beautiful. The level is exceptional. We will very quickly have players who will be drafted, already this year or next year directly from this academy. It's also all the camps, let it be the juniors NBA camp, les juniors NBA schools, there are many programs that are run by the NBA to raise the level of basketball across the continent. And the last part, it's the Basketball Africa League. The objective of this challenge is to be in the next few years one of the best leagues right next to the NBA.

What is Ian's role in this project?

As I have said, I had the opportunity to become a shareholder of the NBA Africa which makes me the owner of the NBA Africa but also the owner of the Basketball Africa League. But there is a condition sine qua non. That is why, I had to retire. And for good reason, I couldn't be an NBA player and at the same time own an NBA-affiliated League. So I made the choice even if it was difficult to retire and enter the organization of basketball on the African continent. But often people don't realize it., but it was also a sacrifice for me.

Do we have a Beninese team in Basketball Africa League ?

The goal is to have one. We don't currently have any. Just to explain the format of the Basketball Africa League called the BAL. Indeed, There are 12 teams that represent the best champion clubs in their country and we operate over two conferences and a final phase called the play-offs. There is the Sahara conference which is played in Dakar in Senegal in March, in April, may's beginning, we have the conference of the Moul which is played in Egypt in Cairo. Finally we have the final stages, the play-offs being played in Kigali, Rwanda. There we will start the third season in March, in this format we have a winner every year who is the best African club.

Your impressions of the university games that will take place in Savalou from 28 January to 05 February 2023

It's for me, Very important. We're going there this weekend. All these platforms that are put forward to give opportunities to Beninese youth, assess the level and see what is happening with girls and boys, at the university level it is very important. Being able to be close to these players and have exchanges, these are very interesting opportunities. I therefore give an appointment to everyone in Savalou.

Transcription: D. TOLOMISSI/ R. ACLOSE

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