Maurice Ndour earns deal with Mavericks after long, strange journey

Entering the 70th season in the NBA's history, and there have been approximately 4,300 players to come through both the NBA and ABA.

So it goes without saying that as observers, we've basically seen all of the different paths young men have taken to the league over the course of time. There's the traditional story of a guy who goes to high school in America, then college, then goes pro. Or the European route of playing for a professional team and then getting drafted. In recent years, we've seen kids come out of Africa to fulfill their collegiate dreams, and even more recently Asia has become a booming basketball market.

However, in all of those years and through all of those players, we've never seen a story quite like that of newly signed Mavericks forward Maurice Ndour.

Ndour earned a guaranteed contract with Dallas by showing out in Summer League, starting every game and scoring 9.6 points and grabbing 4.8 rebounds per contest for the New York Knicks. But more than the stats, it's the way he plays that is impressive. His energy is flat-out infectious, as he dives all over the floor for loose balls and hustles to get into position for rebounds as if there's no tomorrow.

Which is exactly how he thinks of all of his opportunities.

"I'm just hungry," Ndour told CBSSports.com. "It's always been like that, night in, night out. It comes from getting used to hearing the word 'no' from people or always being the underrated guy. When you're the underdog, you don't really dwell on what people say, you just think 'I'm going to prove it to them.' Just go out and make a name for yourself. You don't have anything to lose. You just give it your all and give it your best, so that's how I look at it."

That hunger comes from growing up Senegal, where he had a normal childhood but says he is lucky to be one of the low percentage of kids that makes it out. He started playing basketball at 8 years old, and became good enough to perform well in tournaments. However, unlike most kids who make it out of Africa to play basketball, he didn't come straight to America to pursue his dream. In fact, he basically went to the opposite side of the world, heading to Japan for his high school career.

Yes, at 15 years old, Ndour went halfway across the world by himself to a completely foreign country that couldn't have been more unlike his own. The craziest part about that?

Ndour literally couldn't pick out where Japan was on a map before deciding to live there.

"Going over there I had no idea where Japan was, first of all," Ndour said. "Then the language barrier, I didn’t know it. So I just kind of gambled and trusted my instincts and just had confidence in myself. At the end of the day I’m going to be a man. Leaving your family at the age of 15 isn’t easy, but I’ve learned a lot and I definitely don’t regret going there."

It took Ndour about three months to adjust to the culture of Japan at Okayama Gakugeikan High School, and then six months to become fluent in the language (which was, incredibly, his fifth after Wolof, French, English and Serer).

"The first six months were really hard, but it was smooth sailing after that," Ndour said.

He dominated in high school, winning the MVP award of his district. It's not a surprise that colleges came calling, and he was recruited by the University of Portland under coach Eric Reveno, who knew the Japanese basketball scene well.

"We were very interested," Reveno said. "I played in Japan for four years after my college career was over back in 1989-93, so I spoke the language and had some familiarity. I forget who reached out first, but we got some video of him. There's some good Japanese basketball, and some Japanese basketball that would surprise people. I pulled up the video, and this what people might stereotype as bad Japanese basketball. And he was just as much a man among boys as I'd ever seen.

"Then another thing on YouTube that really got my interest was that he had won a local contest that was him giving a speech in Japanese. It was really impressive to me that he had learned the language quickly."

But despite his acumen for the language and hard work, things didn't work out for Ndour at Portland due to the NCAA's rules for grades. His academic advisor at his Japanese school apparently didn't know what he could do to help the Senegalese big man get eligible. So Ndour was then forced to rely on the conversion tables for grades/standardized test scores, and any college coach who has dealt with those in regards to international students will tell you that those can fall apart rather quickly when recruiting overseas. Ndour could have been doing better work than kids at public schools in America, but because grading systems are different in Japan and because he didn't grow up in an environment that emphasizes standardized tests, he was way behind the eight-ball in regards to his ability to get eligible for college.

So instead of beginning his career at the Division-I level, Ndour had to scramble and come up with a new plan to reach his goals. He knew that he didn't want to go to college in Japan, so he went back home to Senegal for six months to craft an idea. His highlight tapes found their way into the hands of Jeff Brustad at Monroe College, a Juco school in New Rochelle, New York.

"It kind of just got to me from some four-year schools," Coach Brustad said. "He wasn't a qualifier so he had to go the junior college route. We then saw some unique video of him from Japan where he was playing against nine other kids from there. So obviously, on the tape he kind of dominated."

The highly energetic Maurice Ndour earned a guaranteed contract with the Mavericks. (USATSI)

Monroe already had a few big guys, including Orlando Sanchez, who strangely enough was with the Knicks last season for training camp before playing with their D-League affiliate in Westchester. Yet Ndour's talent was great enough that Brustad decided to take a chance on the kid with the strange-looking tape from Japan. Ndour showed up in New Rochelle and wasn't even sure if he was going to make the team. Just like in Japan, it took him about three months to get comfortable with his new surroundings before blossoming and really taking off.

"Personality-wise, this was a mature man when he got here," Brustad said. "Obviously being well-traveled, and someone who could go from Senegal to Japan, there was a sense of maturity there to start. So in terms of the academics and adjusting to culture here, that was seamless. From the basketball end of things, he played the 5-spot when he got here. Then between his freshman and sophomore seasons he put in a lot of work to improve as a player as he was the lone returner on our team. Sometimes, he even acted as a player-coach because we had 12 or 13 new guys. I relied on him a lot."

In his second year at Monroe, Ndour averaged 16.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and three assists per game, earning all-region honors. That, along with his tremendous motor, a massive wingspan and solid all-around game earned him looks from all over the country.

"I went down there to watch him, and I was surprised he was really underrecruited," current Boston College and former Ohio University coach Jim Christian said. "He just has a great, great motor. He plays so hard, and he's so long and athletic, and he's more skilled than he gets credit for."

Ndour quickly signed with Ohio in the early signing period after taking only three visits. That didn't stop him from garnering interest from high-major schools, but he stuck loyal to the Bobcats program.

"I had some pretty high-major schools recruit me," Ndour said. "But coming out of Juco you only have two years, so my main thing was just going somewhere where you can fit and play right away. So me going to Ohio was the right fit at the right time. Everything is about timing. I was coming in, and their 4-man was leaving, so I knew I was going to get signficant minutes."

"He knew he would be a marquee guy for us from day one," Christian said. "That's what he wanted. He wanted to be the main guy from the minute he got there, and that's what he was."

That ended up happening for Ndour, as he averaged 13.8 points and seven rebounds in his first season at Ohio, leading the team to a 24-win season that springboarded Christian from Athens to Boston College. During that time, he became something of a fan favorite.

"He's a worldly guy who really relates well to people," Christian said. "He's just very endearing. Very sincere. It's just who he is. Because of that, he was just so, so popular on our campus. From the day he got there, he was just one of those guys the student section loves right away, his teammates loved him. He's a very engaging kid, and we were lucky to be around him."

Ndour thrived again this past season, being named to the second-team All-MAC squad for the second straight year and upping his averaged to 16 points and 8.3 rebounds per game while providing terrific defense. That wasn't enough to earn him an invite to the NBA Combine, but it did get him into Portsmouth, where he measured extremely well at 6-8 without shoes and a 7-4 wingspan. However, he sprained his ankle on the last day and was unable to really show a lot to teams.

"The whole process of pre-draft, getting to go to teams, work out with them, then fly to another city, work out again, you know, sometimes you get frustrated," Ndour said. "It's stressful sometimes. But really, you just have to focus and do it. I think about it like this: There's a lot of basketball players on this Earth who wish they had the same opportunities I have. To be put in the same position as me to go to workouts for NBA teams. It's something you dream about when you are young. For me, it's just a blessing."

That dream will now become a reality, as he'll go to training camp with the Mavericks with a fully guaranteed salary. The odds are pretty high that he'll be on their opening night roster because of that, which is just remarkable given where he's been. But until then, it's back to where the American portion of his trip started, as he was back at Monroe College last week working on his game.

"He was actually here [at Monroe this week]," Brustad said about Ndour after his Summer League trip ended. "He comes in and works out in our gym. Gets his ice baths here. He's already giving back to the kids in our program now. I have a 6-9 kid from the Sudan now and Mo was in there shooting with him and talking with him. That's what makes him so beloved. He's willing to take time out of his schedule to work with kids. He was here for two weeks before he even went out to Vegas, getting in live stuff with our kids. If he was in the Ohio area, he'd probably do the same thing."

Ohio will probably have to wait though to get to see Ndour again. He has some business to attend to in Dallas.