I didn't actually grow up thinking basketball would become my life. Like many kids in Nigeria, my first love was soccer. I played soccer until I was about 14 years old. As I grew taller, my oldest brother introduced me to basketball.
I knew very little about the game then. I certainly couldn't have imagined that basketball would one day take me from Nigeria to the United States, through college, and eventually around the world as a professional athlete.
But I started playing, and something about the game captured me.
A Dream Without the Resources
My beginnings in basketball looked very different from the life people see today. There were times when I didn't have proper basketball shoes to train in. Sometimes I trained without shoes. Other times, I wore flip-flops.
I remember walking from school to the court in the evening just so I could practice. Rain or sunshine, I wanted to be there. There weren't always trainers, equipment, beautiful facilities or people telling me that becoming a professional athlete was realistic.
But I had a dream.
I would watch NBA players and other professional athletes and wonder whether someone from where I came from could ever reach that level of opportunity. Years later, when I signed my first professional contract, I described how coming to America had opened my eyes and allowed me to see that turning that dream into reality was actually possible.
That belief didn't make the journey easy. It simply gave me a reason to keep going.
One of the biggest challenges was finding an opportunity to continue my education and basketball career in the United States. Finding a scholarship was difficult. Even when an opportunity finally began to take shape, there was another obstacle between me and that dream: getting a visa.
I went to the U.S. Embassy. Denied. I tried again. Denied a second time. I could have taken those two rejections as a sign that the dream wasn't meant for me. Instead, I kept believing. I applied a third time.Approved.
That approval changed the direction of my life. But getting a visa didn't mean I suddenly had everything I needed. My family didn't have the money to simply purchase a plane ticket and send me to America. We had to search for a way to find the money for my flight. For a family with very limited financial resources, even reaching the opportunity I had worked so hard for became another struggle.
I had permission to enter America. I had an opportunity waiting for me. But I still needed a way to get there. Eventually, we found one.
Before I left Nigeria, I made a promise to God: if He gave me the opportunity to walk through this door, I wanted my journey to eventually make the road easier for the young people coming behind me.
More Than Basketball
I arrived in the United States as an 18-year-old kid. Life Christian Academy became important to me for reasons that went far beyond basketball and academics. It was also a place where my relationship with God grew stronger and where faith became an even more important foundation in my life.
Basketball continued opening doors. After high school, I played at Baltimore City Community College, where I was named the program's Player of the Year before moving on to the University of Virginia's College at Wise. At UVA Wise, I competed for two seasons, and during my junior season I put together my best statistical year yet.
12points6.7rebounds per game59.4%shooting
But my college experience gave me something much more important than statistics. It showed me how far a kid could travel when opportunity finally met preparation.
I completed my college journey at UVA Wise, but shortly afterward the world changed. The global pandemic disrupted basketball and life everywhere. The path toward becoming a professional player became uncertain. Once again, I had to wait, work and believe.
Then, in 2021, another dream became reality. I signed my first professional basketball contract with Estudiantes Concordia in Argentina. The kid who once walked to practice in Nigeria without proper basketball shoes was now being paid to play the game professionally on another continent.
Today, I am entering my fifth year as a professional basketball player. My journey has taken me through international basketball, from Argentina to Europe. Most recently, I competed with Club Bàsquet Salou in Spain's Segunda FEB, and I am continuing my career in Spain with Jaén Club Baloncesto.
But somewhere along the journey, success started to mean something different to me. I began looking backward.
Remembering Where I Came From
I thought about the boy walking to the basketball court in Nigeria. I thought about training without proper shoes, and about playing in flip-flops. I thought about the scholarship search, and about hearing no at the embassy twice. I thought about my family struggling to find enough money just to buy the plane ticket after I finally received my visa.
And then I looked at the life basketball had given me.
That is where the Eric Okenchi Athletic Foundation comes from. It isn't simply an organization I created because I became a professional athlete. It is a promise I made along the way.
When people see us collecting basketball shoes, I don't want them to see only shoes. I know what it feels like to be the child who needs them. A pair of basketball shoes may seem small to someone who has always had them. To another child, they can mean the ability to train safely, to participate, to feel included, and perhaps even to believe that somebody sees potential in them.
But our mission is much bigger than shoes. We want to motivate, mentor, educate and create opportunities for underserved young athletes across Africa.
I want a child to meet someone who came from circumstances they recognize and be able to say: ‘If he did it, I can too.’
That doesn't necessarily mean making it to the NBA or even becoming a professional basketball player. Sport taught me discipline. It taught me resilience. It taught me consistency. It taught me how to continue after rejection. And it taught me that sometimes your circumstances can tell you something is impossible while your faith tells you to keep going anyway.
Those lessons can change a person's life whether they eventually become an athlete, doctor, entrepreneur, teacher, engineer or something completely different.
A Reason to Believe
My long-term vision is to remove as many barriers as possible for talented young people who simply lack access. That means basketball shoes and equipment today, but the vision goes much further.
We want to provide mentorship and quality training. We want young athletes to have access to basketball camps, facilities, coaches, meals, transportation and the basic resources they need to develop. Eventually, I want the foundation to build relationships with high schools, colleges and basketball programs in the United States and other countries so that promising young athletes can have opportunities to continue their education while pursuing the game they love. And one day, I want us to provide scholarships for young people whose families cannot afford their education.
Because talent exists everywhere. Opportunity doesn't.
Now I want to use everything basketball has given me to make someone else's road a little easier. I cannot promise every child that basketball will make them a professional athlete. But I can help give them something that was incredibly important to me: a reason to believe.
A pair of shoes can be a beginning. A coach can change a direction. A scholarship can change a family. An opportunity can change a life. And sometimes all a young person needs is for somebody, somewhere, to believe in their dream before the rest of the world can see it.