Peeking past the obscurity of his native Senegal, the big teenager thought big things, and maybe, if hard work and fortune found matrimony, he could someday make it — perhaps as an employee at his father’s fishing business.
“That,” Cheikh Samb said, “was my dream.”
* * *
He was around 17 years old, 6-feet-7 and “getting taller every day.” And he had never played basketball.
Today, Cheikh Samb (pronounced “Check Sahm”), 24, is a Nugget assigned to the Development League’s Colorado 14ers. Then, he was an avid soccer player, looking warily at basketball much like Americans might judge cricket.
“But here’s the story, why I like basketball,” Samb said recently, in perfect English lathered with a thick Senegalese accent. “I was at school in Senegal, and one day a guy called me over and said: ‘Do you play basketball?’ He tells me: ‘You have big feet, you’re going to be long.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know how to play basketball.’ And he says, ‘I’m going to show you.’ And, every day, I say, ‘We’ll talk about it later.’ ”
The man, Amet Rissoul, was a friend, and he insisted Samb at least try basketball. He spoke to Samb’s mother. Finally, Samb showed up at the local basketball club. “And I said, ‘Man, I can’t do this. It’s not like soccer.’ ”
Now the 7-1 Samb is in a foreign country trying to play basketball at the highest level and showcasing the jaw-dropping, warp-speed development of a player who is, well, still developing.
“I think he has good upside and a great career ahead of him,” said Toronto assistant general manager Masai Ujiri, a Nigerian native who has scouted Samb. “Seven feet tall, unbelievable wingspan, good work ethic. He just needs to learn the game and play a little bit more.”
Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin calls him “Smiley.” This is an apt moniker, for Samb smiles often and his grin is so gargantuan you wonder about the sturdiness of his cheekbones.
Samb’s widest teeth-flashing happens, sure enough, when he tells a story about his teeth.
His road from Dakar to Denver went through Paris, where the teenager showed his raw talent to scouts; to Barcelona, where he and his younger brother, Mamadou, rose through the Spanish League ranks; to Detroit, where the second-round pick cut his teeth with the Pistons; and to Fort Wayne, where, in his second D-League game, “They broke my teeth!” he exclaimed, followed by a toothy chuckle.
“Breaking” in
Last December, when Samb played for Detroit’s D-League affiliate, an opponent’s elbow accidentally struck Samb’s mouth. Samb walked to the bench and spit out his two front teeth.
“That was: Welcome to America,” Samb joked.
Last month, the Nuggets acquired Samb from Detroit in the deal that sent Allen Iverson to the Pistons and Chauncey Billups back home. “Cheikh has so much energy,” said Nuggets assistant coach Larry Mangino, who has spent extra time with Samb in the practice gym. “He smiles, he’s engaging in conversations. He’s fun to be around, which helps the relationship, the learning.”
Samb is a perfect pupil for Mangino because he thirsts for knowledge. Practice isn’t a chore.
“He enjoys it, which is a big part of progression. A thousand guys have potential, but if you don’t have work habits, then it never goes anywhere,” Mangino said.
Active on blocks
Samb is listed at 245 pounds, but considering he’s 7-1, he looks more like Jermaine O’Neal than Shaquille O’Neal.
And so, the Nuggets — and 14ers — are working with him on his finesse game, trying to get him to develop a hook shot. Samb’s midrange jump shot is actually pretty smooth, Mangino said, so coaches are emphasizing better footwork so he can create space for his jumper. Nuggets coaches have spent so much time on his hook shot that, after garbage-time minutes against the Raptors, he apologized for not trying one.
Defensively, Samb is a swatter. Last February, he blocked 11 shots in a D-League game. On Sunday, for the 14ers, he blocked five shots in just 26 minutes in a win against Reno.
“He’s an active shot-blocker,” Martin said, “first and foremost.”
Samb is young. His game is young. It’s too early to say if he’ll be like African players Hakeem Olajuwon (Hall of Famer), DeSagana Diop (a sturdy role player for Dallas) or Mamadou N’Diaye (first Senegalese player drafted, by Denver in 2001, but played just four games). But Samb’s perspective is as sharp as his new front teeth.
“Before you get in the NBA, you want the money. But when you get in the NBA, you don’t only want the money,” Samb said. “If you never play, they don’t know you. I know I can show the people I can play in the NBA. I don’t show anything right now.”
In Senegal, there are other potential pros.
Bridges are being built. Amadou Gallo Fall, a Senegal native and Dallas’ director of scouting, works closely with the Sports for Education and Economic Development Foundation in Senegal, which used the U.S. high school model to put students through a 10-month program of academic and athletic instruction.
And the NBA’s “Basketball Without Borders” program reaches out to numerous countries, many in Africa, by developing community-outreach programs to influence social change — and to teach some low-post moves. Last summer, Nuggets assistant coach Jamahl Mosley and minor-league coordinator Ben Tenzer traveled to South Africa with the program.
“With Basketball Without Borders, we have to go to all the countries to select the best kids,” Toronto’s Ujiri said. “That has given us the opportunity to see a lot of these kids early.
“Our main goal is to grow the game there. You always hope that there’s a Hakeem or a Dikembe Mutombo, but overall, it’s to grow the game. And with the physical talent in Africa, that’s bound to come.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
Cheikh Samb
Name: Samb Cheikh Tidiane
From: Dakar, Senegal
Age: 24.
Height: 7-foot-1
Weight: 245
Family: wife Anta, daughter Cheikh Anta
Catching Samb
Upcoming home games for the 14ers at the Broomfield Event Center:
Tuesday, vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.
Dec. 26, vs. Utah, 7 p.m.
Dec. 30, vs. Fort Wayne, 7 p.m.
