GLENDALE, Ariz. — There are a million rags-to-riches stories of dot-com millionaires. And Hasheem Thabeet, a former security guard in Africa who grew up to be a 7-foot-3 center for the UConn Huskies, beats them all.
There is a pot of gold awaiting Thabeet in the NBA. His long and winding road to this unthinkable dream began with a tall, raw teenager spamming college basketball programs, begging for a scholarship by e-mail, after finding potential teams through Google.
“I used to Google coaches and contact them. . . . I paid for an hour on the Internet, and I’d take an hour every two or three days, just sending out e-mails to college teams,” said Thabeet, who zapped e-mails by the hundreds across the United States, everywhere and anywhere, to a Catholic university that politely told him it wouldn’t accept a Muslim student and to coaches who asked for videotapes of his game that he did not own.
Thabeet was born 22 years ago in Tanzania.
But his story could only happen in America.
Proud countrymen back in Africa are gathering around televisions, watching him in the NCAA Tournament, where Thabeet scored 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds Thursday night in the Huskies’ 72-60 victory against Purdue.
“I dominate,” said Thabeet, Big East Conference co-player of the year.
Tanzania has happily come down with a bad case of March Madness. When Thabeet returned home last summer, “I saw people wearing UConn jerseys.”
This feel-good tale was born of tragedy when Hashim Thabit Manka, a successful architect in Dar Es Salaam, died from complications of diabetes when his eldest son was 14 years old.
“My dad passed away, and I got to take care of the family,” Thabeet said.
The first thing he did was quit school and basketball. Thabeet found odd jobs. He carried lights for a TV crew. Worked as a model. Got hired as a bouncer at a nightclub.
“When the fights started, I ran away,” Thabeet recalled with a wide, self-deprecating smile.
Basketball, however, kept tugging at his heart. And Thabeet gave in. He moved to the United States, where as a high school senior, he averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds in Houston. UConn took a chance on him. Thabeet reverently calls Huskies coach Jim Calhoun a teacher, because the lessons have proved invaluable.
As a player, Thabeet has been compared to Dikembe Mutombo, long a dominant defensive force in the NBA.
“I don’t think my game is like his,” Thabeet said. “I think I am more agile. He blocks shots. I block shots. That’s why they compare us.”
But I have seen both centers play, and Thabeet is no Mutombo.
Although this UConn junior seems destined to be selected in the top 10 of the NBA draft on height and potential, there are serious limitations to his game.
Here’s a scouting report from an NBA insider, who gave his unvarnished opinions regarding Thabeet on the condition of anonymity. Read it and weep.
“I’m not the biggest Thabeet fan. . . . He is 7-3, and for a guy that tall he is nearly perfectly proportioned. That said, I do not think H.T. plays extraordinarily long. He has good timing and blocks shots at an elite level in college, but not convinced he will be able to do so in the NBA because guys will go right through him,” says the NBA scout.
“Thabeet is not as long as Mutombo, nor is he as mean and nasty as Dikembe on the basketball court. . . . Offensively, H.T.’s range is a dunk. When he does attempt shots outside of dunks, he most always releases from below the rim. That scares me. . . . If you’re talking top five in the draft, the player better be able to score the basketball at some point. . . . I don’t see it happening for him on the offensive end.”
In a league painfully short of legitimate centers, teams go ga-ga for height. Although the UConn center is not anywhere near the player that Oklahoma monster Blake Griffin or Spanish teen sensation Ricky Rubio is, some general manager will talk breathlessly of potential and fall in love with Thabeet.
He is going to get rich. Lottery-winner rich. Rich beyond dreams.
“It has been a long journey,” Thabeet said. “But here I am now. I guess God has plans for everybody.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
