ATLANTA -- Patricia Ezeli will experience a sense of warmth
Thursday evening, nestled in amongst her family on the outskirts of California’s Sacramento Valley, a student of a
foreign game awaiting her most anticipated lesson yet.
A native
of Nigeria, basketball was far from her consciousness less than a decade
ago. But things change. Her son, Festus, moved to the United States
and, soon enough, she began following the sport as it and the American
culture surrounding it grew on him more and more.
She's now a
LeBron James fan. She despises the way opposing fans and the media
disguise his strengths and shout his weaknesses. There is an affection
for the fallen hero, a sympathy for the unexpected underdog.
"She knows more about basketball that I ever expected," Festus said.
Festus
is the impetus behind her newfound passion. Basketball serves as a
conductor for their relationship, one that is too often separated by too
many miles, bringing them closer through a shared learning process. He
learns on the court. She learns on television.
"Every time I see
her she surprises me with how much she knows. She talks to me about the
NBA now," Festus said, smiling at the thought of his mother thousands of
miles away. "She talks to me about even the draft process."
That
process will culminate on Thursday if and when Festus Ezeli, a
6-foot-10 center prospect out of Vanderbilt, hears his name announced
from a podium in New Jersey.
He moved from Nigeria to live with
his uncle, a pediatrician, in Yuba City, Calif., at the age of 14. His
plan was to shadow his uncle and become a doctor. He wound up with an
economics degree and a serious education in hoops at Vanderbilt. Along
the way, NBA scouts began taking notice of his powerful build and
defensive abilities, projecting him to be a productive commodity at the
pinnacle of the basketball mountain.
Patricia Ezeli, of anyone in the family, understands the significance of her son's present scenario.
"My parents, it's just a high for them," Festus said. "My dad's just excited I'm getting a job."
Employment was never the issue for Vanderbilt graduates. Employment in the NBA, however, was another story entirely.
--
Shan
Foster, Vanderbilt's all-time leading scorer, was the last Commodores
player to be selected in the NBA Draft. That was back in 2008 by the
Dallas Mavericks. He never made the roster.
Before Foster came
Derrick Byars, drafted by Portland in the second round of the 2007 NBA
Draft. Byars’ stay wasn’t much longer.
Success has not
come cheap for players hailing from Vanderbilt, tabbed as a top-notch
academic institution and an athletic postscript. Byars, in 2012, was the first player to log minutes at the NBA since 2006 — he totaled just 37 minutes.
That six-year drought will end this week.
Along
with Ezeli, standouts John Jenkins and Jeffrey Taylor are expected to
hear their name called from that Newark, N.J., stage.
“It’s kind of unheard of at Vanderbilt to have that many guys in the draft," Taylor said. "It’s come into its own right now."
It
will be a momentous event for the black-and-gold triumvirate, a shared
personal dream chased down, wrestled and caught. But it offers similar
equity for their school's program.
Head coach Kevin Stallings has
overseen the program for 13 seasons. In that timeframe, only four of
his players have been drafted. To downplay Stallings's appreciation of
Thursday night's peachy outlook would be shortsighted. There is, for
good reason, an overwhelming sense of justification — and pride — in his
voice when discussing the subject.
“We’re excited for those
three guys and they worked very, very hard and really did everything
that we asked them to do over the course of their time here," Stallings
said. "Hopefully it helps us in recruiting and creates an awareness that
you can come to Vanderbilt and get drafted highly."
History
suggests that is not entirely true. There's a distinctive quality to
this particular trio of players — and the rare way it came together in
Nashville — that Stallings might never recapture.
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A continental divide separated them.
Ezeli,
of course, arrived from Benin City, Nigeria as a young teenager. After a
brief stay in the NBA, Taylor's father took his talents overseas to
Sweden and never left. The younger Taylor traveled to live stateside
with his grandmother in New Mexico at the age of 17, becoming the
state's Gatorade Player of the Year before committing to Stallings.
Then
there's Jenkins, the native son, a Tennessean through and through, born
and raised in Hendersonville just 20 minutes from Vanderbilt's campus.
Hendersonville sits on Old Hickory Lake, a pit stop for the Cumberland
River before it snakes down to Nashville, aquatic symbolism of the route
its favorite son was forever bound to follow. Yes, Jenkins' bearing
always pointed southwest, to Stallings, to Vanderbilt.
"Me being
local, I was kinda on the team before I was on the team. I would usually
come to practices and play pick-up with them, hang out with them at
night and stuff. Those guys brought me in and weren't like, 'Look he's
getting all the attention, he did this in high school,'" said Jenkins,
the highest-rated recruit of the lot. "For them to be older than me and
accept me in was something that I was definitely surprised by and
something that I was definitely fortunate enough to have."
When
Jenkins touched down on campus, a year after Taylor and two years after
Ezeli, who redshirted his freshman season, the international table was
set.
"That coming together was weird because you wouldn't think
that a Tennessee kid would be cool with a Nigerian kid, or a Swedish a
kid, or Cameroonian," Jenkins said. "You have to get used to the
different languages they speak and how they talk and how they interact
with people."
Come together they did.
In its three seasons
together, the Vanderbilt triad's record showed little improvement —
from 24-9 to 23-11 to 25-11 this past season. But it took the Commodores
to much greater heights. Vanderbilt's NCAA Tournament résumé
transitioned from first round exit to second exit to a Sweet Sixteen
appearance. Left behind is the crowning achievement of their collective
run, the 2012 SEC Tournament championship trophy, earned by knocking off
juggernaut and eventual national champion Kentucky.
"This is
such a unique group," said Dave Pendergraft, the Atlanta Hawks assistant
general manager. "We were talking as a staff that if they had been
healthy all year, I mean, they were possibly a Final Four team."
Ezeli,
Taylor and Jenkins fell short of that goal by two games. It is,
nationally, a stigma that will continue to follow the program:
Vanderbilt consistently falls short on the biggest stage of college
basketball. They were not able to change that.
Perceptions about
Vanderbilt and NBA futility can — and will — change Thursday evening,
though. All three players completed their long, strenuous run of private
workouts for NBA teams this week, a process that, for most prospects,
is as trying on the mind as it is on the body. So for once, former
Commodores might consider their schooling advantageous in the hoops
world.
"We’re used to handling a lot of things at the same time.
We went to Vanderbilt. That’s not the easiest school to go to in the
world," Taylor said. "We’re used to stressful situations."
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Extended family will not be allowed to watch the draft with John Jenkins.
The
6-foot-4 sharpshooter will be locked away in a Nashville hotel room,
accompanied only by his parents — and his younger sister, Adrienne,
maybe — and blocked off for a few precious moments from a world that has
swirled around him since he was the local high school standout. When
his name is called from that draft podium, perhaps he will hear his
grandfather, an aunt, an uncle, his cousins or his high school and AAU
coaches cheering in the adjoining room. Perhaps he won't.
"It's going to be that bad," Jenkins said, shaking his head.
Plenty
of folks in Nashville will be holding their breath Thursday night. At
least one family outside of Sacramento will follow suit.
And if
everything goes according to plan, a university will, at long last, find
common ground in the ranks of professional basketball.
"We're
just trying to make our school proud, make the people back there proud,
give them some people to cheer for in the NBA," Festus said. "It's good
having guys there that can support each other."
Pride will be
felt by Vanderbilt fans everywhere Thursday, but it will not compare to
that warmth in Patricia Ezeli. Her brief basketball story is a tale of
the surprise long shot, and her son and his teammates wear that honor
proudly now.
When it's all over, backs aching from the workouts
and incessant congratulations, texts will be received and phone calls
will be made. To friends. To non-attending family members. To each
other.
"I've seen [Festus] go from somebody that wouldn't even be
able to touch the floor on a high school team to somebody that's about
to get drafted into the NBA," Jenkins said. "I've seen them grow and
they've seen me grow, and that's what's special about it."
After
the calls and texts come the plans. To meet new teammates. To restart
offseason workouts. To settle into a life of professional basketball.
But
first, and ultimately foremost, Festus Ezeli, Jeffrey Taylor and John
Jenkins will treat themselves to a night commemorating their unlikely
assemblage and even more unlikely success.
"I think Jeff's going to be in Nashville, too, so maybe after the draft we can meet up and celebrate."
The rest of the city might join in.
