Nigeria - Hoops diamond in the rough

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His name is Augustine Okosun and he is a 6-foot-10, 240-pound basketball player from Benin City, Nigeria, who will suit up next year for Seton Hall.

He has only been playing organized basketball for about three years and his skills are still raw, yet his current college coach said, "He runs like a guard."

Okosun's journey from Nigeria to the United States has been fraught with twists and turns, at least in part because of his legal guardian, a controversial man named Joe Smith who once found diamonds in Liberia and Sierra Leone and gold in Mali and is now hoping to turn a profit on basketball potential.

If Okosun, or any of the other African players Smith has helped bring over to the U.S., ever makes it to the NBA – and that is a big if -- Smith hopes to get a major cut of the payday.

"I would like to get 20-25 percent (of the player's earnings)," Smith, 65, said. "It would be negotiable."

"(My family and I) talked about it two years ago," Okosun said in a lengthy phone interview from Harcum (Pa.) College, a junior college where he is averaging 5.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. "We have it in the back of our minds that he's going to get a percentage when we get to the NBA."

There are currently at least 46 Nigerians playing Division I men's basketball, and there are four Africans in the Big East Conference. As more and more Africans dream of coming to the United States and becoming the next Hakeem Olajuwon or Dikembe Mutombo, an increasing number of people are getting involved in helping them get here.

In one camp are those associated with the NBA's Basketball without Borders program, which, among other things, runs camps and clinics in Africa, helps build basketball courts and educates athletes on HIV awareness. Masai Ujiri, the scouting director for the Denver Nuggets, and Amadou Gallo Fall, the scouting director for the Dallas Mavericks, run the Basketball without Borders camps, and say they have helped bring 50-60 African players to American prep schools and colleges over the last five years. Ujiri and Fall say they seek no financial gain from the players and believe that their approach is rooted in protecting the players' interests and helping them go through the proper channels to get visas.

In the other camp, or perhaps on an island, is Smith, who openly admits to be seeking a percentage of any potential NBA deals his players might sign and believes that the Basketball without Borders crowd is all talk and no action when it comes to helping players get out of Africa. Smith said he has brought nine Africans to the U.S., including Okosun and a second unnamed player who Smith said will also play next year for Seton Hall. Five are currently in college, three left school and one graduated, Smith said. None of his players has yet to reach the NBA.

Ugo Udezue is a Nigerian who played college basketball and is now the director of African basketball for the BDA Sports agency, which counts Yao Ming and Steve Nash among its clients. He called Smith's approach "disgusting" and "criminal," but said it was natural that people would try to profit off of African basketball players, particularly when they come from a country that is "almost 80 percent illiterate," he said.

"When you have a kid that doesn't have a clue about anything (related to) basketball, that opens up an opportunity for people who want to take advantage of these kids," Udezue said. "It's unfortunate."

In response, Smith, who said he spent 25 years buying diamonds and gold in Africa before he recently became interested in helping bring basketball players over, had this to say: "You got some African people that wait here in the States. They shoot their mouths off that they are helping the kids, but none of them have ever brought a kid in here and helped them get started.

"They're over there in Africa. God-given talent is being wasted in Africa. My objective is I want to get these kids in for their high school years and then they can have their choice of colleges."

Smith's mission

Smith, who lives with his wife in Clifton Heights, Pa., said the idea of bringing African players to the U.S. came to him about eight years ago, "when the price of gold really dropped."

He understands the laws of supply and demand, and knows there is a huge demand for athletic big men in American college basketball and the NBA.

"You can be the best coach in the world with the Xs and Os," he said. "But if you don't have the players, you're going to be looking for a job."

Smith said he has heard of college coaches "coming with bags of money for players, but it's never happened to me."

Would he take money in return for sending a player to a certain school?

"I would be open to listening, to be honest with you," he said. "As long as it's within NCAA regulations."

Smith has no written agreements with his players, largely because he understands that such agreements would violate NCAA rules. A standard NBA contract calls for an agent to receive 2 percent of a rookie minimum contract and 4 percent on a longer-term deal. Smith would not serve as the player's agent – a contract calling for the agent to receive 20-25 percent would likely be disallowed by the NBA Players Association, an NBA spokesman said -- but would instead rely on the player's "good character" to compensate him for his assistance.

"If the kid is fortunate enough to get to that level, then we form a corporation, say the 'Augustine Okosun Family Corporation' and say he owns 75 or 80 percent and I own the balance of the company," Smith said.

The journey begins

It was three years ago when Smith and Okosun first got hooked up. Okosun is the fifth of nine children. His father works as a telecommunications engineer and his mother is a high school principal. Like most Africans, he grew up playing soccer and only began playing basketball three years ago.

"A couple of people told me I would be good at it," he said.

Through a friend, Okosun was invited to the Basketball without Borders Camp in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2004. That camp also featured current Rutgers big man Hamady N'Diaye of Senegal.

Also during this time, Okosun sent out online applications to about 25 American colleges, including Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He said it was the Marist head coach who first reached out to Smith.

Though Smith had yet to meet Okosun in person, he helped Okosun obtain a visa from the American Embassy in Nigeria.

"He called the embassy and set up the appointment and gave me all the instructions on what to do," Okosun said. "He became my legal guardian."

And how did Okosun's parents feel about that?

"They spoke to Joe Smith a couple of times," Okosun said. "He sent them everything about himself. They got to know him and they trusted him in making him my guardian."

No matter what anyone says about Smith, Okosun stands by him and says that he would not be where he is today without Smith's assistance.

"He's a really good guy," Okosun said. "He's done so much for me. He's someone I can talk to. He listens. He just relates to me well."

Coming to America

While Okosun was still in Nigeria in 2004, Raphael Chillious, the head coach at the South Kent School, a prep school in South Kent, Conn., said Smith reached out to him and South Kent headmaster Andy Vadnais about possibly sending Okosun to the school. Chillious said he had never heard of Smith before then.

Smith maintains that it was Chillious who first called him inquiring about Okosun.

At any rate, Chillious said he liked what he saw on Okosun's videotape and the two sides began to arrange for Okosun to the come to the school on scholarship and receive the necessary I-20 form, used in visa applications. (The current South Kent roster has two Nigerians and one Senegalese, who competed in the Basketball without Borders program.) What happened next depends on with whom you speak. During a tour of the school with Chillious and Okosun, Smith said he mentioned that he wanted to start a centrally located basketball academy in Nigeria, and that Chillious responded that the father of a student at the school might be able to help him out financially.

Chillious flatly denied that version. He said that after Okosun was enrolled, Smith called Vadnais to ask for $100,000 for the academy.

Vadnais confirmed that Smith asked for money for his academy, but could not remember the precise amount.

Vadnais said he told Smith, "We don't have that kind of money. But if it's a worthwhile cause, then something good will happen. Other people may want to jump on that."

Smith further said that Okosun called him three times to complain about conditions at the school, including having to wash dishes. Chillious said it is standard for all juniors at South Kent to wash dishes twice a week.

At that point, Smith drove to the school, where he said he found Okosun lifting weights in an unmonitored weight room. He said he went looking for Vadnais and Chillious, but could not find them. He said he then obtained Okosun's passport and paperwork from the school administrator and took Okosun out of school.

When Chillious went to Okosun's room, he said he did not know what had happened to him. Chillious and Vadnais said they had no idea that Okosun had since turned up at Harcum.

Okosun did not want to comment on the specifics of the situation, preferring only to say that, "It wasn't a very good experience. It's something that happened a while ago. I've gone past it. I just want to move forward."

Smith said Okosun made a brief stop at Crichton College in Memphis (spring 2005) before he landed at Georgetown College in Kentucky for the 2005-06 season. Okosun said he went there because he wasn't getting as much playing time as he had hoped.

Harcum College is in Bryn Mawr, 15 minutes away from where Smith lives. Okosun ended up there after Smith called Harcum head coach Drew Kelly and offered to bring him up to campus for a visit.

"We were kind of in the right place at the right time," said Kelly, who also serves as the school's athletic director.

In the time that Okosun has been on campus, Kelly said he has absolutely no problems with Smith, and that Smith has never approached him or the school for money.

"I haven't had any problems with Joe Smith at all," Kelly said. "He pretty much just minds his own business."

A raw talent

Okosun had yet to play a minute for Harcum last summer when several Division I coaches, including Bobby Gonzalez of Seton Hall and Fran Dunphy of Temple, watched him during an open gym at the school.

Kelly said Seton Hall offered him a scholarship soon thereafter.

"Austin is a great kid," Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez said, referring to Augustine by his nickname. "We're really exxited about him. We think he's a little raw offensively, but he's big-time shot blocker and he can run the floor. Obviously, we desperately need help inside. He's going to be a big addition next year."

By all accounts, Okosun is a hard-working young man, on and off the court. He said he got straight "As" during the last semester and made the Dean's List and holds a 3.85 GPA.

He has started nearly every game for Harcum, which is 27-2 and ranked fourth in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association Division II poll.

Kelly said Okosun is still very raw and learning more about the game every day.

"He's made tremendous strides," Kelly said. "His scoring and his rebounding and his blocks have increased since the start of the season. At the beginning of the year he was having a lot of foul trouble. He's toned down the foul trouble and increased his production.

"He's a hard worker. He competes. I think Austin's best days are ahead of him."

The road ahead

Okosun said he and Smith rarely talk about a future in the NBA, because that possibility is so far off and remote. On one Website that ranks potential NBA draft picks, Okosun is listed outside of the Top 10 junior college centers in the country and among a large group of those on honorable mention.

"We're more focused on getting there," Okosun said of the NBA. "We have it in the back of our minds."

And if he ever makes it there, Okosun said he will happily give Smith his cut.

"I'm OK with it," he said. "He's OK with it. We're going to wait and see."