Efe Abogidi was 15 years old and 9,000 miles away from his Nigerian home, cradling an increasingly bright hoops future in the palm of his enormous hand the same way he palmed the basketball on his now-famous free-throw line dunk, when his out-of-nowhere ascendance came to a shocking halt.

Abogidi landed awkwardly after a dunk at the 2017 NBA Global Academy games in Canberra, Australia, and his left knee buckled. As he lay on the court with a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus, with all of his family and friends on the other side of the world, the last thing on his mind was the history he is now making. It would take two years and multiple surgeries for Abogidi to get back to the court, but all the mental anguish and hard work is starting pay off in a big way.

After two years at Washington State, the 6-foot-10 Abogidi is leaving school to play next season for G League Ignite. He is the first player to leave a Division I program early to play for Ignite, which was formed in 2020 as an alternative to college basketball for players who want to develop their games in pursuit of an NBA dream.

“I think this opens a lot of doors for college athletes,” Abogidi told The Athletic. “I’m glad to be the first one to do it.”

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After averaging 8.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks for the Cougars as a sophomore last season, Abogidi entered his name in the transfer portal and declared for the NBA Draft. After being deluged with offers from Power 5 schools and weighing the option to go straight to the NBA, Abogidi decided instead to play for coach Jason Hart and Ignite, in part because he saw Dyson Daniels, his former teammate at the NBA Academy in Australia, play for Ignite last season, develop his game and then get drafted eighth by the New Orleans Pelicans Thursday night. MarJon Beauchamp, who jumped from junior college to Ignite, was drafted 24th by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Just like all of the major programs that started recruiting Abogidi when his name hit the portal, so too did Hart, who was an assistant at USC before Ignite hired him last season. Hart saw Abogidi play for the Cougars against the Trojans as a freshman and believed that Abogidi’s combination of size and athleticism made him the perfect fit for Ignite.

“It wasn’t like he was looking for us,” Hart said. “We went and sought out him because we feel he has the ability to be an NBA first-round pick. We had to try to convince him to come.”

For Abogidi, being recruited to play and positioning himself to one day be in the NBA Draft has brought a period of reflection on how far he has come. Soccer was the dominant sport where he grew up, in Delta State, Nigeria, and Abogidi never even considered basketball until he was about 12. Eight years later, he becomes the first alumnus of the NBA Academy Africa to play for Ignite.

There were times Abogidi wasn’t sure he was going to make it back from the knee injury. There were times those helping him rehab at the Australian Institute for Sport were just focused on getting him to be able to walk again and think about being healthy enough one day to chase his future children around the soccer field. But Abogidi stuck with it, and now here he is, with a real opportunity sitting in front of him.

“Giving up ain’t really my thing,” he said. “Life gets hard. Where I grew up, it’s a ghetto. I’m trying to make home better. Giving up at this moment is not really the deal.”

Growing up in the southern part of Nigeria, Abogidi really had no time for hoops. All of his friends played soccer, and his family had little money for basketball shoes or uniforms, so he dismissed early overtures from those who saw him sprouting up into a long, lanky pre-teen. He preferred to compete in the long jump and high jump, a telling precursor to his introduction to the basketball world.

When he was 12, he finally relented and checked the game out with a friend. He dunked on his first day on the court.

“The court had a concrete floor with lines on there and a rim that if you hold on to it, it’s going to collapse,” Abogidi said with a chuckle. “There was no net. It’s not really a place you want to hoop in.”

Abogidi’s skills were raw, but his physical tools were undeniable. He liked the way it felt to elevate and throw it down, so he started watching YouTube videos of NBA players. Tim Duncan was a favorite. Abogidi was much more unbridled, so much more electric as an athlete, but there was something about Duncan’s stoic demeanor and melodic footwork that mesmerized him. The more Abogidi played, the more he liked the game and the more he started to think about the places it could take him.

He would go to school during the day and train in the hot afternoons and evenings. A child of the social media world who was behind because he’d picked up the game so late, Abogidi had the feeling that if he was going to get noticed and get a real chance to make a career out of this, he had to grab the world’s attention.

“If you really want to make it from where I am, nobody wanna see you shooting or dribbling,” Abogidi said. “People want to see highlights, how you dunk the ball.”

He understood the assignment. Abogidi’s athleticism and body started to draw the eyes of basketball people, and in January 2017 he joined the NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center in Senegal for the top prospects from around the continent. The NBA launched the academies as year-round, elite basketball development programs to give high-school-age kids all over the world a vehicle for developing their games. There is one in India, Mexico and Senegal, and the hub is in Australia, all strategically placed to reach as many international basketball players and fans as possible.

It was in Senegal that he announced his presence to the world with a soaring dunk in which he took off from behind the free-throw line. The NBA’s Instagram post of the dunk has been viewed millions of times. Joel Embiid and other high-profile NBA players have shared it, marveling at the 15-year-old flying through the air.

“I thought it was pretty easy to do,” Abogidi said with a shrug. “After that, everybody wanted to meet me that day.”

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Chris Ebersole, the NBA’s vice president of international basketball operations and the head of elite basketball development, was in the crowd in Senegal that day when Abogidi took flight.

“We saw a player with just world-class explosiveness and athleticism,” Ebersole said. “Your jaw is just on the floor when you see some of the plays he would make. But at the same time, there were so many raw elements to his game.”

Abogidi was invited to join NBA Academy Africa and given a scholarship. He headed to Australia to play in the NBA Global Academy Games.

“We knew he had a ton of potential,” Ebersole said. “The only question was can we harness it and develop the other skills, the shooting, the feel, the ballhandling? You saw unlimited upside as well as a blank canvas in terms of his game.”

Abogidi was making a strong impression at the Global Games, blocking shots and throwing down dunks, when he suffered the injury in the championship game. Academy officials consulted with Abogidi, his guardian, Olumide Oyedeji, and his family and determined the 15-year-old would remain in Australia to have surgery on his knee and rehab at the renowned Australian Institute of Sport.

What followed were two exhausting, sometimes deflating years away from home that pushed Abogidi’s strength and resolve nearly to the brink.

“It was a tough spot for me,” he said. “I got to a breaking point where I wanted to stop playing basketball.”

Marty Clarke came on as the NBA Global Academy technical director shortly after Abogidi’s injury. He understood the delicate process of trying to build trust with a scared teenager and knew the only chance for Abogidi to get back on the court was for the doctors and staff in Australia to help him with the mental side of the equation as much as the physical.

“He was a little confused and a little lost for quite a long time about how to go about getting his knee back right to do what he wanted to do on a basketball court,” Clarke said.

Not only that, but geography made things very difficult. Because of the time difference, Abogidi was often awake late into the night so he could talk to his family back home. The odd hours often kept his teammates awake as well and contributed to him occasionally being late to appointments for rehab and what little skill work he was able to do. Abogidi was a young kid who simply didn’t understand the process, so it took time to get him into a routine.

“He wasn’t great early on about sticking to a rehab plan and just simple things like time management,” Clarke said. “Not that you wanted to go through an ACL to teach you that. But in the end, you look for silver linings and that was a thing we really focused on with him. Let’s fix up the other parts of your life and not focus on the basketball because that puts pressure on you.”

To make matters worse, Abogidi suffered several setbacks with his knee along the way and needed a second surgery to continue the healing process. It got to the point where doctors and academy officials started to change the goals of the recovery. It no longer was for Abogidi to continue pursuing his basketball career. It was just to get him back to living a normal life.

Clarke said moving the goal posts was an essential part of the recovery process. Abogidi had come to Australia believing this was his big break, his pathway to financial freedom for himself and his family. That pressure weighed on him through every physical therapy appointment, every phone call home.

“Let’s just get him back to being able to function in normal life and eventually go out and have kids and go down to the park and kick a soccer ball and do all the things a dad would do,” Clarke said. “That was really the turning the point. It released the pressure of, ‘I’ve gotta get back because I want to go to college.’

“He cleared his mind of all the frustration and now he gets really good at his rehab.”

Abogidi couldn’t do much in the way of running or jumping, so it forced him to work on the parts of his game he could improve while remaining relatively stationary. He worked on his shooting form, his release and the arc of his shot. He watched his teammates practice and really started to learn more of the nuances of the game. A player who relied so much on overwhelming his opponents with explosion had never had to worry much about shooting. But the injuries forced him to concentrate on that, and he came out of it more comfortable at the free-throw line and stepping out behind the 3-point arc.

“It’s rewarding to see a player fight through that and not quit,” Ebersole said. “Those are the characteristics we look for in players and try to instill in players.”

As Abogidi finally started to get back on the court and get his legs back underneath him, the visions of a career in basketball started to reform in his head. His knee felt good enough. He believed in the people around him who had helped him get back and told him he could do it again. And now it was time to go for it.

Clarke didn’t want to throw Abogidi back into five-on-five games too early, so he had the idea of taking Abogidi with the NBA Academy team to the Tarkanian Classic at the G League Showcase and get in front of scouts. But the plan wasn’t for Abogidi to play in a game there. He just needed to be seen.

“We knew some college would offer him a scholarship on what they see in warmups. I was 100 percent convinced that would happen,” Clarke said. “That was kind of his last chance to do the college route. As soon as people just saw him walk and run and move and jump, the ease at which he does things, the size of his hands … that’s how he got his college scholarship, basically in warmup.”

Washington State did offer him the scholarship, opening the door for Abogidi to resume his dreams of playing in the NBA.

The romance and excitement many American kids have for the college game wasn’t there for Abogidi. He didn’t grow up watching March Madness. He didn’t particularly care if he was wearing a blue-blood jersey or in an arena that hosted 20,000 fans. What he wanted more than anything was a developmental plan to prepare him for the NBA.

Cougars coach Kyle Smith gave that to him, playing him 24 minutes per game as a freshman. Abogidi played 37 games as a sophomore and made 79 percent of his free throws, a nod to all of the work he had done on his shooting in Australia. What Abogidi really discovered in Pullman, Washington, was that he was physically back and ready to compete. After two years away, he needed that confidence in his body back.

“Without him, any of this would not be possible,” Abogidi said of Smith. “He believed in me when nobody did. They gave me a chance.”

When Abogidi entered the portal after establishing himself as a real factor in the college game, it wasn’t because he wanted a bigger stage or a more established program. He was looking for the place that would expedite his development.

“I don’t really care about a crowd. That’s not the main reason I get here,” Abogidi said. “I’m here to play basketball against other potential NBA stars.”

Hart recognized the hunger to improve right away. Ignite doesn’t play in fancy gyms or have millions watching them on TV during the NCAA Tournament. But it does offer players a chance to play real games against grown men who are fighting to get noticed by the NBA. That level of competition — and the coaching from Hart and Rod Strickland and mentorship from vets like Pooh Jeter and Amir Johnson — are what appealed to Abogidi.

“You won’t find an atmosphere like Kentucky or Kansas or Duke, but you will find NBA general managers at your practices or games every day,” Hart said. “When you come to our program, you’re looking for that. If not, you should’ve gone to Kentucky. All the young men here are focused on trying to be NBA first-round draft picks. They’re not coming here to play in front of 20,000 or have Dick Vitale screaming their names.”

“The competition, the style of play, the players, you can’t duplicate that,” G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim said. “That’s the closest you’re going to get to being in the NBA. I’ve noticed the young men who have decided to do it, they’re not always the highly touted, highly rated player, but they’re the ones with the confidence or the idea in their mind that they can do it, that they’re ready for that step.”

That’s what Abogidi has wanted. He flew halfway around the world for a chance at basketball glory, suffered a major injury, and then spent two years scratching and clawing his way back. Now, after committing to Ignite for next season, he feels closer than he ever has been to making all of his dreams come true. Abogidi has already had other college players reach out to him to pick his brain on his decision. Suddenly, that injury that threatened his career doesn’t seem so bad after all.

“Where I came from is not easy, man. I’m telling you that. It’s a struggle every day,” Abogidi said. “Just being here at the moment, going through an injury, it’s a flesh wound. It’s going to heal. It’s just a matter of time. I just thought that it’s going to be really good to create a story out of this. In my head at that moment, there were a lot of days where I felt it was too much for me. But you never stop working and trying to get better.”

(Top photo courtesy of the NBA Academy and Floyd Melon)