At 35, Hamady N’Diaye seems to have put down his suitcases at least temporarily on the side of Élan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez, a legendary club for French basketball. For RFI, the Senegalese pivot returned to a rich career which saw him leave Dakar in 2004, to go through the United States and the NBA, China, Lebanon, the Philippines, Israel, Spain, l Italy and finally France.
It’s been eighteen months since Hamady N’Diaye settled down at Élan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez, a mythical club for French basketball and it’s almost a feat. The Senegalese had indeed rarely stayed so long in the same formation, he who has evolved in about fifteen teams since his professional debut in 2010. I am very well settled in Pauexplains the man who extended his contract there twice, in December 2020 and then in June 2021. I feel good. I really like the supporters of the club. I like the atmosphere. And then I had this experience of living all over the world “.
Inspired by his father’s travelogues
The 35-year-old pivot is not exaggerating. Before settling in France, at Gravelines-Dunkerque (2019-2020) then at Elan (since October 2020), he passed through the United States and the legendary NBA, China, Lebanon, the Philippines, Israel, Spain and Italy…” The experience in China is one of those that marked me the mosthe says, when asked which country has affected him the most. I left the NBA for China. It was two different worlds. I expected more than what I experienced there. It was a very good experience. When I arrived there, for example, I didn’t expect to see such passionate fans. A bit like the Philippines, which was one of my favorite countries. In Israel, it was amazing. In Italy too. I always wanted to experience these things, with people, instead of watching them on television or through stories “.
To represent the world, Hamady N’Diaye did not need a screen when he was a young Dakar resident. It was enough to listen to his father, an employee of the World Bank. ” There were the stories my father used to tell me when he came back from all his trips around the worldhe recalls. During my youth, I was really focused on studying to show him that I was really worthy. What mattered to him were studies and not too much sport. That’s why it took me so long to get into basketball “.
Around the age of 15-16, the teenager is however more involved in the orange ball, he who mainly played football goalkeeper for fun. ” I really started to practice this sport to have a scholarship and go to the United States “, he insists. In 2004, thanks to the Basketball Without Borders Africa detection program, Hamady N’Diaye was spotted. A few months later, he leaves his family for the American dream.
The NBA was not an end in itself
After finishing high school in California, then studying at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Senegalese is trying his luck in the biggest basketball championship in the world. A contrasting NBA experience: in four years, between 2010 and 2014, Hamady N’Diaye only played around thirty games with the Washington Wizards and the Sacramento Kings. All interspersed with numerous passages in the antechamber of the NBA, its development league, as well as by freelances in the Chinese championship. At one point, this formidable defender therefore decided to stop the charges.
“ When I left the NBA, I had no regrets at all. I enjoyed the time I spent there, improving myself and preparing for the career I then had. Those NBA moments were invaluable and really shaped me for the man I became after.he explains. For me, arriving in the NBA has not been easy. Being drafted [recruté en 2010, Ndlr] has already required a real fight. In those days, it was even more difficult when you were an African player “.
” I decided on my own not to return to the NBA.he continues. I started enjoying seeing the world. I also wanted to start being respected for my talents in teams that wanted my skills and in which I was not just the 15and squad player “.
This is also the period during which Hamady N’Diaye won with the Teranga Lions. ” In 2013, it was my first in the national team and we managed to win bronze at the AfroBasket and thus qualify for the World Cup. Then, in 2014, reaching the round of 16 of the World Cup in Spain against the Spaniards, these are memories that I will never forget “, he says.
Pass it on to younger people
Subsequently, Hamady N’Diaye won another third place at the AfroBasket, in 2017, and played in the 2019 World Cup. Will this World Cup in China be his last experience in selection or does he hope to be part of the 2023 edition co-organized in particular by the Philippines? “I don’t know how to answer this question.he laughs. I never announced my international retirement. But I respect the direction the national team has gone in, with a new generation “.
Youth is another source of motivation for the globetrotter. ” I still take great pleasure in playing, winning matches and above all passing on my experience to other players and to young people.he assures. It is very important for me. I work a lot for the next generation, even if I haven’t decided when I will stop “.
He concludes, a few weeks before the end of the French Championship: “ Basketball has taken me all around the world. I was able to live in different cultures and worlds. Living with people I could never have imagined living with when I was in Senegal. It’s something that I always appreciate: meeting new people, new cultures and being able to experience things that when I was a young person in Senegal were not too much in our imagination. Being able to go around the world, like I did, and being able to experience what I experienced through basketball is really something that qualifies my career a bit and that I love from the bottom of my heart. »