South Africa - Basketball Without Borders Africa

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Chad Buchanan, Trail Blazers Director of College Scouting, will check in periodically while traveling through Africa with a group of NBA players and coaches as a participant in the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program.

Part Three: Saying goodbye The best part of this trip for me has been having the opportunity to get on the court and work with the campers. As a scout I rarely get that opportunity. These campers come from all over Africa and are so hungry for good coaching from us. They look you in the eye and try to do exactly what you teach them. The major emphasis of this camp for us coaches is to not only help these kids become better players, but to also teach the African coaches how to teach the game to these kids. The NBA brings in about 50-60 local African coaches and they follow you around all day learning how we teach the game. Many of these local coaches are still in the beginning stages of not only learning the game, but also how to communicate and teach the game effectively. I have sat down with many of these coaches for short question and answer sessions and have also allowed some of them to attempt to run my daily skills station. My team was assigned a local coach to help on the sidelines this week as well. As much as we want to help these kids at camp this week the future of basketball in Africa lies in the hands of these local coaches.

My team this week has been a joy to coach. Trying to get 10 kids who come from different countries and who speak several different languages is challenging but I feel like we came together as a group and that each kid improved over the course of the week.

A large majority of these kids come from no money and have experienced some unbelievable hardships back home. Almost all of them desperately want to come to the USA to go to school and play basketball. By the end of camp I had close to 15 kids approach me asking, "Coach, can you help me come to the USA to play basketball?" As much as you want to help every one of them there are a lot of obstacles preventing it from happening - from obtaining a student visa to academics to language barriers to financial issues. I had two players on my team that approached me about coming to the states that I would really like to help. They were both great kids and were both extremely talented players. After speaking with NBA office personnel and Amadou Fall (camp director) I think we might be able to help them achieve their dream of a better life.

On Saturday the entire group of NBA coaches, players, league office staff, guests/families and Nike staff took a one hour drive outside of Johannesburg to a neighborhood called Kliptown. It was a trip that none of us will ever forget. Kliptown has nearly 45,000 residents and is the most poverty-stricken community you could imagine. Families living in tin shacks the size of a large closet, no electricity or running water, minimal bathroom facilities, live and dead rats everywhere. The shacks are built on dirt and there was no grass or pavement anywhere. We were told that our cell phones could feed a family of four for a month. We toured the community on foot and kids would run to you and grab your hand and want to walk with you. They were extremely excited to see us and several different groups of them performed dances for us - with one group pulling Dikembe into their dance routine. We concluded our tour with a stop at a building that was funded by the NBA and is a 24-hour safe haven for kids in the community. They can come here and get fed and also to feel safe from all the dangers that lurk in this community. Each one of us sat down at a table with 4-5 kids and we had the chance to visit with them. The group at my table included 3 boys ages 10-12 and one 13-year old girl. They were so excited to talk and asked me tons of questions about the USA. None of them had ever heard of the Blazers but they were Blazer fans instantly after I talked to them about our players. I was blown away by how enthusiastic and upbeat a group of kids could be considering the hand they had been dealt. Dikembe and Amadou both gave emotional speeches to the entire group, encouraging every kid in the room to believe in themselves and to follow their dreams. It was a moving experience for all of us and when we got on the bus to leave we sat in silence for a long stretch of the ride - reflecting on exactly how lucky we are in our own lives.

We wrapped up camp on Sunday with two all-star games and a good-bye barbecue with all the campers. After a week of camp you tend to develop relationships and connections with the campers and many of them approach you with hugs and thank-you's. It was a great way to finish the week.

Most of us had evening flights on Monday so we had part of the day to explore Johannesburg. A small group of us, including ex-Blazer Shareef Abdur-Rahim and a couple of coaches and players decided to check out the Lion Park. The Lion Park is a wildlife preserve where you can get up close to lions, cheetahs, hyenas, zebras, wild dogs and giraffes. Our vehicle was able to pull up next to a male lion - close enough where we could have almost stuck our hand out the window and touched him - if we were stupid enough to try. The day before the lions had been fed so they were in "chill mode" as we cruised around them. We were all able to actually pet and play with a group of lion cubs and we also were able to feed a giraffe out of our hands.

Time to head back to Portland now - it was an unbelievable experience. Thanks to the NBA for asking me to participate and a special pat on the back should go out to Amadou Fall. Amadou has done so much for the youth of Africa and I hope I can continue to help him and the league in their quest to make basketball in Africa continue to evolve.

Part Two: Building skills and homes

Have had 2 full days of working with the campers now and it is amazing how much improvement these kids can show in such a short time span. The majority of these kids have had very little coaching and are way behind where a US 17-18 year old is fundamentally. They are very eager learners though and hang on every word you say. They bust their tails non-stop and I have yet to have one camper ask me for a water break or even complain about an injury. While their skill levels may be poor, their athletic levels are off the charts. During station work I have been teaching the post players some basic post moves. Many of them struggle with the footwork and ball handling but 90% of them go way above the rim to finish plays. I have really enjoyed getting to know and work with all these kids and look forward to another few days of seeing them improve.

The NBA arranges several community service projects for us while we are here. Yesterday the NBA coaches and players conducted a clinic for 100 Special Olympians. Today, our entire group of NBA coaches, players, league office personnel and families/guests traveled to an extremely poor neighborhood outside Johannesburg where we helped Habitat for Humanity construct 3 new homes for needy families. It was a real eye-opener to see how some people live in such poverty-stricken areas of this country. We have more service events planned for this weekend.

It has been a great trip so far and I have enjoyed getting to know some of the coaches, players, NBA office people and families/guests. We work in a ultra-competitive business and to have the opportunity for us to all come together and help out both the campers and the community has really been enjoyable.

Part One: Welcome to Johannesburg

I flew DC to Johannesburg with a group from the camp that included Alex English, Kenny Natt, Charlie Bell (and wife), Caron Butler (and younger brother) and Matt Bonner (and wife). All great guys and we were all excited about the trip - only Alex had been to Africa before.

Landed in Johannesburg and we all headed to the NBA hotel. The entire group that included coaches, NBA players, NBA office personnel, Nike staff and staff guests/families got together for dinner that night. I ended up sitting with some of the Nike people and Dikembe Mutombo and his wife - very nice people. Dikembe has had a huge impact on the people of Africa with his humanitarian efforts.

The next day we toured the Apartheid Museum and learned all about how racial separation began in South Africa. The tour led you all the way from the late 1800's up to the early 1990's when South African government finally allowed every citizen to have an equal vote. It chronicled the plight of Nelson Mandela and showed video of the celebration surrounding his release from Robben Island prison - after 27 years there. Unbelievable to think that such racial segregation took place as recently as the late 1980's.

We then headed to the gym for our first day with the campers. Close to 100 kids from almost every country in Africa - ages 14-18. They were divided into teams and us coaches evaluated them as they play pick up games for about 90 minutes. We then headed back to the hotel and held a draft to construct our teams for the week. I am paired up with Joe Wolf (Bucks asst), along with a long time veteran coach from Portugal named Carlos Barroca and also 2 local African coaches that are here to learn from us how to teach the game to their kids.

Camp directors Mamadou Fall (Mavericks), RC Buford (Spurs), Lance Blanks (Cavs) and Masai Ujiri (Raptors) have done a tremendous job of building this camp into a way to help grow basketball in Africa. There is so much. Raw physical talent here but these kids have had very little instruction on the basics of the game.

Following our draft we watched a film on the lives of 4 prisoners that spent close to 15 years at Robben Island prison off the coast of Cape Town. Robben Island is a massive version of Alcatraz and was were South Africa authorities sent prisoners of color away for some unbelievably minor offenses. We learned about the injustices they faced from the staff there and how soccer became a passion and unifying activity for the prisoners. Two of the film's characters were here and spoke to us following the film.

We have several more tours and community events that a part of the camp still ahead.