It was like a scene from a comedy movie. Chilling humor. You've probably seen it before.
Shane Denery, an American from the Bronx, was giving details of his new home to his guest, a thin Nigerian teenager named Precious Achiuwa.
He explained the layout. A view of the shower. Hot and cold knobs. Denury wasn't sure if Achiuwa was hampered by the language barrier and was speaking very slowly.
“And in the middle of it I said, 'Do you know what I'm saying?'” Denoury told Sports+. “And he said, 'I speak English.'”
Perfect English?
“Perfect English.”
This may have been the first time Achiuwa surprised Dennery, but it certainly won't be the last.
After immigrating from Nigeria in 2012 without much fanfare or outside expectations regarding his basketball career, Achiuwa settled in the borough and rose to become the new backup center for the NBA and more recently the New York Knicks in his homeland in the United States. I embarked on a journey.
Oz Cross, a longtime AAU coach now with the powerhouse New York Rens, was instrumental in bringing Achiuwa to the Bronx from Nigeria on a student visa.
But for Cross, recruiting wasn't really about basketball. At first it wasn't. It was primarily a favor to Achiuwa's older brother, God's Gift, who was a forward at St. John's and where Cross was an assistant coach in the program.
“God's gift told me about his brother overseas, and I have a history of bringing kids overseas,” Cross told Sports+. “His younger brother was young. I honestly didn't realize how good he was. God's gift is a really, really nice guy. So I was like, 'Gift is cool, let's take him.' thought.
“But we didn't bring him in as a prospect as we knew he would be a good player.”
In the end, Precious was good. However, his confidence exceeded his skill.
“He thought he knew everything. But he knew nothing,” Cross said with a laugh. “I don't know what he'll say now, but I think once he came in, we definitely had to challenge him and teach him, because we thought he was here. I was like, wait a minute, you have a lot to learn.”
Two things stood out to Denary, Cross and coach Ken Miller, the group that discovered Achiuwa's basketball talent when he came to the United States.
The first is Achiuwa's spirituality, which he developed as the son of two Pentecostal pastors from Port Harcourt, Nigeria's fifth largest city. Achiuwa made it a non-negotiable priority, pledging to attend church twice a week and sometimes trekking from the Bronx to Queens.
The second priority was basketball, which manifested itself in a 5 a.m. training session before classes at Our Savior Lutheran Church in the Bronx.
Miller, one of Cross' AAU assistants, led those workouts at OSL, where he also served as an assistant coach.
“He quickly proved his determination to come here and be something,” said Miller, who now coaches at Earl Monroe's New Renaissance School.
Achiuwa stayed with Denary and Denary's mother either at his brother's home in Queens or in the Bronx. Dennery, a longtime AAU assistant to Cross and currently a New York League coach and NYPD officer, was also impressed by Achiuwa's drive.
“He really wanted to be successful,” Denary said. Denary, along with Miller and Cross, has guided other New York-based heavyweights to the pros in what he calls “The Formula.”
“That's one of the things Precious noticed when he first got here. He was really, really hungry. He wasn't just happy being in America and that lifestyle. Some foreigners come here and settle down and don't work much.
“I've seen a lot of that with kids who come from overseas and different countries. When they come here, the work stops. … It's not him.”
That helped Achiuwa, who is now 6 feet 8 inches tall, have a growth spurt in high school.
“When he came, he said he was a point guard. I'll never forget it,” Denery said. “But as he grew up, he didn't need to be a point guard.”
It was after a loss in the 15U AAU title game to the New Heights program in New York City that Cross realized about Achiuwa's NBA potential.
Achiuwa was inconsolable.
“He had a pretty good match in the championship, but he was crying so much after the match. And I couldn't make him stop crying,” Cross said. “I had to take him outside and tell him he was OK. And he said, 'No, he's not OK.'
“He just couldn't get over the loss. At that point, I thought this kid was going to do something special. He's serious about this. He played well. But… He took it seriously and thought he could have done better. … He came back the next year and won the championship.”
The rest of Achiuwa's trip, up until about a week ago, took him farther from New York. From OSL, he transferred to high school powerhouses St. Benedict's School in New Jersey and Montverde School in Florida.
He spent one year in Memphis under Penny Hardaway before joining the Miami Heat with the 20th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Through it all, Achiuwa maintained ties to New York and relationships with the men who helped her leave.
“He's like a little brother to me,” Denary said. “He's family. He became my son's godfather.”
Last week's trade to the Knicks was greeted with a mix of excitement and concern by longtime New York friends. They are clearly overjoyed to see him playing so often at Madison Square Garden, where Achiuwa will be playing backup to Isaiah Hartenstein and Julius Randle. But there are pitfalls when he becomes close to so many former acquaintances.
“Tickets,” Cross said. “I've been getting calls from everyone, Mr. Administrator. He went to his two different schools in the area. All the calls from teachers and people who have interacted with him over the seven years he's been here. The call was like, “Hey, I need 10 tickets.” Maybe around 10 years old? ”
Each player will only be allocated 4 free tickets per game.
“When he got traded, I felt like I got traded too because everyone was texting my phone asking for tickets,” Denery said. “I thought, 'Oh, this isn't going to work.'”
Furthermore, the fan base is also unforgiving. There's even more pressure…especially on a mid-season acquisition that will fill a key hole in the rotation.
But New York's Achiuwa should already know that.
“I was happy because it was close to home. But I also know that Nick's fan base is brutal,” Denery said. “If success doesn’t happen quickly, it could be a disaster.
“So it won't be something foreign to him. He basically grew up here.”
The Knicks haven't won the NBA popularity contest.
The NBA released a list of the “15 Most Viewed Players'' on social media, which means X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, and last season they reached the conference semifinals. Despite finishing in the top eight, Nick did not compete at all. It was stated.
This is a bit of a drag considering the Knicks are a dominant team, but this team's Q score is surprisingly low.
Last season, for example, neither Jalen Brunson nor Julius Randle finished in the top 35 in NBA-wide All-Star fan voting.
Both are All-Star candidates again in 2024, and it will be interesting to see where they land, if at all, when the first voting results are announced Thursday.
My guess is that it won't be expensive.
Why do these Knicks players have a hard time getting widespread fanfare?
Popularity is not an exact science, so while there are many theories, let's create your own.
Here are the most-watched players in the NBA in 2023.
LeBron James (Lakers)
Stephen Curry (Warriors)
Victor Wembaneyama (Spurs)
Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
Kevin Durant (Suns)
Jimmy Butler (Heat)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
Anthony Davis (Lakers)
Kyrie Irving (Mavericks)
Austin Reeves (Lakers)
Joel Embiid (Sixers)
Ja Morant (Grizzlies)
Want to catch a game? Tickets to all upcoming Knicks games can be found here.
When and where will the next exhibition be held?
I kept saying in last week's Knicks newsletter that the most likely time is big The transaction will take place in the summer of 2024.
My point remains after they acquired OG Anunoby, which was a significant transformation, but not the All-Star blockbuster I was referring to.
Why in summer? It's a typical time for star players to let their guard down after playoff disappointments and salary cap concerns heading into next season.
Unless a player is actively causing disruption (well, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving), stars usually aren't traded during the season.
Now let's talk about the Timberwolves.
Talking to some people before Minnesota played at the Garden on New Year's Day reinforced the idea that the T-Wolves probably won't be able to put this team together.
They're certainly playing well enough to make it through the playoffs, but their cap situation is so dire that they're expected to pay an exorbitant luxury tax next season, meaning they won't be able to do much in the summer. It is expected that someone will be taken off.
Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore Assuming control of the franchise Coming from Glen Taylor, they're wealthy enough in a vacuum, but not by NBA owner standards.
The player who makes the most sense to move is Karl-Anthony Towns, who is scheduled to make about $224 million over four years from 2024 to 2025 (cover your eyes). He's a very good player, but he's not worth that much.
As I reported, Towns' situation is being monitored by the Knicks.
Leon Rose used to be his agent, and Towns remains a CAA client.
