By Fran Blinebury

Johannesburg, South Africa - They have come to learn about the proper
techniques for jump shots, defense and boxing out for rebounds.

In reality, what they are chasing are not mere hoop dreams.

"I would like the chance to go to school in America," said Paulo Muquixe, an
18-year-old forward from Angola. "I do not believe that I am LeBron James."

Very few, if any, of the 99 players who attended the NBA's second annual
Basketball Without Borders-Africa camp will ever stand under the bright lights
or hear their name announced as part of starting lineups at the highest level
of the game.

They have come from as far away as Morocco and Algeria at the top of this
huge continent, battling their way through the bureaucratic red tape to make
the trip from Mali or Burkina Faso — 26 countries in all — as part of a
pilgrimage in which the game of basketball is more a means to a better life
than an
end.

"Most Africans may see the occasional NBA game on television and hear
stories about the fame and riches of players such as Hakeem Olajuwon and
Dikembe
Mutombo," said Anicent Lavodrama, Manager of International Relations and
Development for FIBA, the world governing body of basketball. "But the idea
that
sport is a way to make a living, that it is something to aspire to, is really
not part of the culture."

Lavodrama remembers when he left his home in the Central African Republic
back in 1981 to play at Houston Baptist.

"My parents regarded basketball as something that would occupy my free time,
keep me in the gym and out of trouble," he said. "When I told them that I
scored so many points or we won this game or that game, it gave them a reason
to smile.

"But when we talked on the phone, all they really wanted to know about was
my grades. They were insistent that I keep up with my studies. That I get my
degree. That I would eventually make something of myself by becoming a man
with an education."

That is why when American fans and scouts bemoan the lack of successors to
Olajuwon and Mutombo as players who could achieve great things on the court,
the majority of Africans still see the steady flow of students to the United
States as a success.

Of the just over 100 players who attended the BWB camp last year, 14 are now
attending American schools, some at the high school level, some in college.
There are at least that many out of this year's crop who will have a good
shot at making the transatlantic move.

Athletic but raw:
While a careful study of the players running up and down the court will
reveal flashes of brilliance — an acknowledgment that Africa is still a
fertile
ground for NBA talent that has largely gone untapped — what is more evident
is
how raw most of the players are. The majority have been playing for only
three or four years at most; some picked up a basketball for the first time in
the last 18 months to two years.

"We can develop Africa as a place to eventually mine NBA talent," said
Amadou Fall, one of the camp directors and an international scout for the
Dallas
Mavericks. "For now, though, it's about getting the developmental programs
established and getting these kids to the US and into American schools. The
more we can get them focused on an opportunity to go to an American college,
the easier it will be to open the pipeline in the years to come."

The pioneer was Thabo Letsebe, who came out of one of the poorest townships
in Johannesburg. He learned to play the game barefoot and went on to become
the first black South African to gain an athletic scholarship and a college
degree in the United States. Letsebe never played in the NBA or even at the
major-college level in the States. He played for Goucher College, a Division
III school just outside Baltimore.

"The chance for an education took my life from out of the gutter to letting
me live out a dream," Letsebe said.

Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, the NBA spokesman for the international
programs around the world, nods his head in satisfaction.

"Basketball, even if you're successful at it, lasts a short period of time,"
Lanier said. "The message that we are trying to spread is that the game can
give you an opportunity to do so many other things.

The dream of these kids is to get themselves out of some of the most
miserable circumstances in life that you could imagine. It's not just street
crime.
It's abuse, sexual abuse, a very high possibility of contracting HIV or
AIDS."

Ruben Boumtje Boumtje of the Cleveland Cavaliers recalls that even after he
played for head coach John Thompson at Georgetown, the friends and family who
stayed in touch with him from Cameroon were far more impressed that he
graduated in 2001 with math and premed degrees.

DeSagana Diop of the Cavaliers also heard from the folks at home in his
native Senegal. They were actually upset that Diop made the leap from Oak Hill
(Va.) Academy straight into the NBA, even though he was the eighth overall
pick in the 2001 draft.

True measure of success:
"I'm going to pursue my degree through my NBA career and hopefully be able
to succeed at both of them," Diop said, "because I know that there are a lot
of people watching me in Senegal, and to them the education is the far more
important part of the picture."

If one of the players in this year's Basketball Without Borders program
eventually makes the jump across the Atlantic to become an NBA star, a smile
might cross the face of Lanier. But if several dozen, if not all, of them can
get educated, become productive and help someone behind them, it will give him
even more satisfaction.

"The brightest light we can shine is one that helps these kids find a way to
help themselves," Lanier said. "They come, a lot of them, from societies
where it's normal to drop out of school altogether by the time they're 14, 15
or 16 years old."

"Not me," said Alexis Wangmene of Cameroon. "It is most important that I go
to the university. What I learn there will last longer in my life than
basketball."


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