BARCELONA, 3 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Barça player James Nnaji commented that his professional objective is to play in the NBA and that he plans to do so “in a maximum of three years”, although he is now focused on helping Barça to get into the ‘Final Four’ of the Euroleague, something that they are within shot of a victory against Zalgiris Kaunas.
“I have the goal of playing in the NBA. I am going to win the Most Improved Player of the Year and I will be an All-star player at least twice. I see it in a maximum of three years,” said the player in the DAZN report ‘James Nnaji, Barça’s Nigerian prodigy.
An ambitious dream for a Nnaji who started playing basketball in 2016 and would only train once a month. “I had to be at the market with my mother. If I had some money, I could go by some transport, but if not, I would walk for an hour in the sun to train. There was a moment when my family told me: ‘Uncle, we spend a lot of money for you to play basketball,’ he recalled.
But he managed to make the leap to Europe, and after a two-year formative period in Hungary, Nnaji achieved “the impossible”; sign for FC Barcelona. “I saw a message on my cell phone from my agent that said: ‘James, there is a Spanish team interested in you playing with them’. When I found out it was Barça I thought it was impossible,” he acknowledged.
The head of scouting for FC Barcelona, Rubén Alcaraz, assures that they signed Nnaji for a video. “We didn’t even move, we decided to sign him only with what we saw of him on video,” he revealed.
Fabián Telléz, former Barça Junior coach, acknowledges that in the first month they were already able to see what Nnaji was capable of. “His degree of delivery of him, his capacity for sacrifice and respect for his staff and his colleagues, were very high,” he said.
The report tells the story of how a boy went from helping his mother in the market to being a rising star in the EuroLeague. In fact, despite having a revulsive role in certain games, he is one step away from playing his first ‘Final Four’ of the competition.