10 Greatest African Basketballers to Ever Play in the NBA

Manute Bol

On March 3, 1993, while playing for the Philadelphia 76ers against the Phoenix Suns, Manute Bol, born in Turalei, Sudan (South Sudan), matched his career-high 18 points in stunning fashion: he made half of the 12 three-point shots he attempted in the second half. To call that shooting performance unexpected would be an understatement, even Charles Barkley fell into a squat on Bol’s sixth make.

Bol, the 7 feet 7 inches unicorn, was mostly a non-factor on offense during his time in the NBA. His height wasn’t complemented by size, which meant he got pushed around by stronger bigs, and his touch was very unrefined, making him inefficient at close shots or offensive putbacks when he got to the basket. However, those gangly, long limbs made him a shot-blocking menace. In his rookie year with the Washington Bullets, he averaged five blocks per game, and his 397 total blocks still remains the rookie record in the NBA.

Bol, who passed away in 2010, was an outspoken advocate for peace in his home country, donating regularly to charitable causes while war ravaged South Sudan. His impact stretched beyond the lines of the basketball court.

Al-Farouq Aminu

There was barely any shake to Al-Farouq Aminu’s game, but he always knew how to be useful within the scheme of what his teams needed. The Nigerian American hooper was a smart, physical defender who could guard across forward positions and sometimes switched on to centers and even guards. Offensively, he was an average 3-point shooter with the ability to drive against closeouts and deliver varying styles of finishing at the rim — from strong dunks to double-clutch layups.

Aminu suited up for six teams, but he was at his most impactful during his 4-year stint with the Portland Trailblazers, making the playoffs every year, including a surprise run to the Western Conference finals. He also played internationally for Nigeria, competing in the 2012 London Olympics, helping Nigeria win the FIBA Africa Championship in 2015.

Luc Mbah a Moute

Luc Mbah a Moute knew his role, and he greatly relished it. In whatever lineups he was in, Mbah a Moute was the designated defender, taking on the role of guarding the opposing team’s best wing or forward players, and occasionally switching onto bigs. The Cameroonian forward was never voted to an All-Defensive team, but it was widely known that he was elite at hounding stars who played against him.

Mbah a Moute was a complementary piece in the latter years of the lob city Clippers, and he added grit to the James Harden-led Houston Rockets, which finished as the top-seeded team in the Western Conference in 2017-2018. Mbah a Moute set the NBA record for the highest plus-minus, when the Rockets pummeled the Denver Nuggets by 57 points in a late November 2017 matchup.

Luol Deng

Luol Deng is the forebear to the most coveted types of role players in today’s NBA: long wing players who are solid and switchable defenders and can toggle between hitting shots within the flow of the offense or create their own buckets when needed. During his decade-long run with the Chicago Bulls, the South Sudanese British athlete was as reliable as he was malleable, whether it was as a complementary under-star to Derrick Rose’s MVP-level play, or as the leader of an egalitarian offense.

Deng was named an All-Star on two occasions — 2012 and 2013 — and he made the NBA All-Defensive second team in 2012. His blend of agility and solid shooting touch is reflected in South Sudan’s men’s basketball team, of which Deng is the assistant coach. He is also the president of the country’s basketball federation. Although he competed for Great Britain internationally (due to the war, his family left South Sudan for the U.K. when he was a child), Deng’s commitment to fostering his birth country’s global prominence in basketball is unwavering.

Pascal Siakam

Pascal Siakam’s ongoing career is a testament to the countless hours of hard work the Cameroonian forward put in to become a bonafide star. In his first two years with the Toronto Raptors, Siakam mainly came off the bench, as he tried to cement his place as an integral part of the team’s on-court structure. His third year was his breakout season, greatly upping his offensive productivity and winning the award for Most Improved Player. In that same year, he was vital to the Raptors winning their first and only NBA championship title.

With his muscular 6 feet 10 inches, Siakam is a walking mismatch nightmare — too big for guards and smaller wings to handle, and too crafty for bigs to contain. He’s one of few players who can function as a point guard, operate as a wing, and even play as a big. His touch from the midrange is incredibly reliable and he has grown as a playmaker, all of which have factored into two-time All-Star and All-NBA selections.

Now with the Indiana Pacers, his first half-season showed his powers as a floor raiser, helping the franchise reach the Eastern Conference finals back in May. Siakam’s lore is still being written but his greatness can’t be doubted.

Serge Ibaka

Coming into the NBA, Serge Ibaka was a preternaturally talented, traditional big man. He hung close to the rim, swatted shots and had a decent back-to-the-basket game. In 2012 and 2013, he led the league in blocks, while securing three consecutive All-Defensive selections from then until 2014.

Years later, as the league’s three-point revolution was in effect, Ibaka evolved into a floor-spacing big, becoming the coveted mix of strong interior defending and outside shooter that created space for the superstars he played with. After his first seven years with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and a very short stint with the Orlando Magic, Ibaka became an invaluable Toronto Raptor, winning a championship title in three-and-a-half years. Ibaka engraved a silhouette of the map of Africa on his championship ring.

Dikembe Mutombo

For the first seven years of his career, the late, great Dikembe Mutombo scolded opponents who tried to challenge him at the rim, waving his index finger in embarrassing disapproval. Even after it was banned by the league, the finger wag not only remained an iconic trademark, it has also become the default gesture for many players when they swat shots away.

Mutombo’s defensive prowess wasn’t just generational, it’s definitive to basketball. A four-time Defensive Player of the Year, he not only anchored great defenses, he elevated the ceiling of whatever team he was on by being an all-time eraser. He led the NBA in blocks for three straight years, was an All-Star for eight years, appeared on six All-Defensive teams, and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Joel Embiid

At his best, it’s not a hyperbole to describe Joel Embiid as a force of nature. The moment he catches the ball, especially in the area around the free throw line or on either side of the basket, everything is dictated by his jab steps, his pump fakes, his drives, and one of the deadliest midrange touches. Embiid is genuinely one of the most talented big men in the history of the NBA — how else do you explain that a young boy from Cameroon, who only picked up basketball as a teenager, evolved into a terror for defenses?

It took two years after being drafted for Embiid to play his first NBA game. Injuries have been a frequent part of his career so far, with his playoff runs marred by them. Before the start of the season, Embiid said all he’s bothered about is winning a championship title, which might mean not playing games on consecutive nights, and not overexerting himself during the regular season.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

In the open court, very few players put the fear of God in opposing players like Giannis Antetokounmpo. Even against set defenses, he’s a battering ram, charging down the lane with an otherworldly force. That ability to bend and break defenses came with hours and hours of work in the gym, as the gangly teen who arrived in Milwaukee, as the 15th pick for the Bucks in 2013, transformed himself into an imposing mass of muscle.

After his fourth year, Antetokounmpo won the Most Improved Player award, in recognition of his leap into superstar territory. Two years later, at just 25 years old, he won his first NBA MVP title and repeated the same majestic feat the following year. However, Antetokounmpo desperately wanted a championship ring. In 2021, a year after his second MVP win, he led the Bucks franchise to its first title in 50 years, earning Finals MVP honors and delivering some of the most iconic plays in NBA finals history.

Hakeem Olajuwon

Hakeem Olajuwon is, in every sense of the word, a trailblazer. Arguably the perfect mold for a center, Olajuwon had everything: force, silky touch, smooth and agile footwork, and an eclipsing presence on defense. As former teammate and Inside the NBA co-host Kenny Smith has said on countless occasions, Olajuwon was the kind of superstar who elevated his teammates in incredible ways.

Nicknamed “The Dream,” the purity of Olajuwon’s talent is still glaring in the hundreds of highlights that are on the internet. For someone who didn’t touch a basketball till he was 15 years old, the game clearly loved him as much as he loved and worked hard at it. His patented dream shake is still the ultimate hooper’s move for bigs and even guards. He was the incredibly rare superstar that served as both the focus on offense and the anchor on defense, a forebear to current African NBA stars — Antetokounmpo wears the same number Olajuwon wore in his playing days, and Embiid has admitted to extensively studying the Nigerian basketball maven.