40 Year-Old Rookies in the NBA
Not too long ago, I saw a quote from a mock draft that made me boil a little bit. In a mockup, prior to the 2021 NBA Draft, a writer whose name I will keep anonymous, ranked the incoming rookies by their potential for success in the league. This writer decided to drop the rookie Jonathan Kuminga down several slots from his usually projected positions for no reason other than his “unconfirmed age”. Although they were tactful enough to spend a paragraph explaining that it may be “unfair” to call Kuminga’s age into question or to penalize him for having grown up in Congo, this writer took a bold stand against being “politically correct” and took the rumor into full consideration. Personally, I had actually not heard this rumor from any other source, at least not when talking about Jonathan Kuminga, so I was pretty taken aback. In some ways, it’s not at all surprising this writer would invoke a rumor which had minimal backing and turned out to not be much of a factor in determining draft stock. Without impugning the character of this writer too much, I will say that this is a very, very commonly spread rumor, with a surprising amount of baggage. I am not surprised that one might lean into it, even if it is propped up on nothing. Yet, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that this is a stereotype more than it is a legitimate concern in the NBA. It leans on a very Western-centric understanding of the Periphery which imagines Africa to be a lawless hellhole, incapable of even basic record-keeping. There is, within this stark representation, a kernel of truth. Many children born in Congo, South Sudan, or a number of other African nations lack birth certificates due to the decentralized nature of record keeping. This is a fact, but it is only a fact, and simple facts cannot tell a full story. The claims of drastically overreported ages that this fact is often used to justify are very rarely substantiated with much else but the assumptions one’s own mind can conjure from this knowledge. As a result, a frankly embarrassing number of NBA players have had to grapple with this conspiratorial side of the media for no other reason than having it suggested.
Manute Bol was the first African-born player to find themselves at the bottom of the rabbit holes of NBA media. Bol was born in South Sudan in 1962 to the Dinka tribe, a transhumant pastoral clan, meaning that they would migrate their herds for several months of the year, and then return to permanent residences. This is often misinterpreted, for whatever reason, as Manute Bol growing up in a jungle (South Sudan actually only has a single, small jungle biome, the East African Montane Forests in the mountains). Once Bol reached the United States, he had no formal record of his birthdate, aside from a passport which reported that he was both 19 years old, and only five-foot-two (he said he was sitting down when this measurement was taken, still hilarious). However, the only real evidence for Bol being older than his scant documentation implies is hearsay. An interview with his former college coach at Cleveland State, Kevin Mackay, as well as a soundbite from a podcast with former 76ers teammate Jayson Williams, make up the bulk of the evidence with which this case is constructed. Both of these interviews, unsurprisingly, came long after Manute passed away, and was thus unable to address these claims himself. MacKay claims to have worked with the immigration office (huge Cleveland State fans, apparently) to come up with a birthdate for him, settling on October 16th, 1962, which made him 19 at the time. MacKay, however, says that he believed Bol to be at least 40 years old when he came to Cleveland State, possibly even in his 50’s. The single other point of evidence that exists, in this case, is from Jayson Williams, who claimed to have counted the scars on Manute Bol’s head (which according to him, Manute was using to mark every 5 years of his life), concluding that Manute was 55 years old. From these two post-career, posthumously delivered interviews, an entire generation of NBA fans became convinced that Manute lied about his age. Or, more accurately, these two claims provided a close-enough justification to a rumor which had already grown legs by the time of Bol’s death.
From 2008–2016, Serge Ibaka was one of the NBA’s premier defensive players; he made three all-defense teams and led the league in blocks twice. He protected the rim with a level of ferocity very few in NBA history have ever been able to emulate, setting a 3.7 blocks per game average in 2012 which has proven insurmountable since. He was a youthful, springy, overwhelming paint presence who could sky for a swat or pound one out of the hands of a hapless opponent. Of course, this could never have lasted forever. The league changed around Serge almost overnight. The shooter’s revolution of the mid-2010s drew defenses further away from the basket and made weakside shot-blocking significantly less effective. To Serge’s credit, he was able to make adjustments to his offensive game in accordance, but the eye-popping block numbers were simply no longer possible. Once traded from the Thunder to the Magic, time seemed to be running on double for Serge, his numbers were in decline and he looked noticeably less athletic in comparison to his Thunder days. It was this, in tandem with his public courting of the apparently married Keri Hilson, that set off bizarre rumors about his age and identity. See, from 2012 until roughly 2016, Serge and Keri Hilson carried on a public relationship, which she publicly acknowledged on several occasions. However, according to many tabloid websites, Hilson has been married to a man named Samuel Soba since 2002. There is little to no evidence that person actually exists and Hilson has never publicly addressed a relationship with anyone by that name. However, when you look up “Samuel Soba” on google, your results will turn up almost entirely pictures of Serge. Somehow, this led the more conspiratorial-minded side of the NBA fandom to use this as some type of evidence. It is mind-bending how somebody could come to this conclusion, but fans became convinced that Samuel Soba was the true identity of Serge Ibaka. For this to be true, it would mean that he was 6 years older, that he had somehow emigrated prior to being drafted, and that he had married Keri Hilson, changed his name and began to play in the NBA six years after this happened. Somehow, this bizarre rumor followed Serge for several years, even after he’d won a championship and had some of the best seasons of his career in Toronto.
These are only a couple of examples from notable players, but this rumor finds itself attached to the name of so many African players it’s become a bit maddening. It would be dogmatic and disingenuous for me to claim that all these rumors are untrue, I’m sure on the individual level at least a few of these cases can be proven. However; Thon Maker, Sekou Doumbouya, Bismack Biyombo, Dikembe Mutumbo, are only a few of the African players who have had to duck these rumors for the majority of their careers, and I’m only listing basketball players. Even Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, one of the most respected and skilled players of his era, was rumored to be up to five years older than listed at times. Claims with the magnitude of implications that these rumors invoke should be at the very least substantiated with some degree of evidence beyond hearsay, especially if reported on in a journalistic context. Think about the run-on effect one of these rumors, if discovered to be true, could actually have. In the case of Shabazz Muhammed, an NBA player who actually did have his age found to be a year older than listed (he was born in Long Beach), it ended any real interest from NBA teams in his continued development as a player before he was even drafted. In the NBA, youth is often conflated with potential, while older players are treated with skepticism, a dynamic we’ve seen play out in almost every draft since the days of high school-aged prospects. For this reason, the age rumor can be particularly detrimental to the career of any player forced to labor under it, it casts an ugly shadow over the accomplishments of their entire career and artificially places a cap on what they can become in time. It insidiously bounces between biases borne by NBA fans both as sports evaluators and as residents of the most powerful nations of the world.
Only by conscious rejection of regressive attitudes like the one this rumor embodies can NBA fans move forward.
