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American Basketball took a hit in 2004. We didn't just get beat in Athens, we got beat often. (Yes, the roster had flaws. It also had two league MVPS and four of the best young players in the world.) So what gives?

Is someone on to something we're not? Or is it just desire that's closed a canyon-size talent gap in less than a decade? To find out, The Magazine spanned the globe in search of hoops excellence. Five countries. Five prospects. Five ways to learn the game. Who does it best? You be the judge--at least until 2008.

Dakar, Senegal Poor Facilities + Poor Coaching = Unrealized Potential

By Chris Broussard

A light went on.

No, really. Papa Samba Ndao made a move no 13-year-old should be able to make, and a light popped on above his head. After catching a pass on the right wing, he threw a pump fake that sent the defender, a seven-footer three years Ndao's senior, flying through the air. Then, with the burst of a Super Ball, he soared from the baseline off of one dribble. And as his soft finger roll fell through the net, a dead bulb in the rafters of the converted French airplane hangar came back to life.

The message seemed clear: this is the Chosen One.

Samba, of course, is not the first African to show promise on the basketball court. After Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo crossed the water two decades ago, others from the continent were expected to flood American gyms. But the predicted deluge has been a trickle. Why? It's a simple equation: Poor facilities + poor coaching = unrealized potential.

Amadou Gallo Fall, director of scouting for the Mavericks, has been trying to change that. The best national programs on the continent are in Nigeria, Egypt and Angola, but in 2003 Fall established Africa's first, and only, basketball academy in his native Senegal. Called SEED-Sports for Education and Economic Development-it is a boarding school for aspiring players. Today, 17 of them, most between the ages of 16 and 20, study English, science, math, history, computer science and French, Senegal's official language. And hoops. They practice twice a day, five days a week. Every couple of months, scouts from the NBA fly over to run clinics.

Many of them think the 6'7" Samba, who's 14 now and has been playing for only two years, could be SEED's first graduate to make it into the league.

It's so muggy in the gym you can't catch your breath. But on the court, 6'5" and 6'8" skywalkers from Nigeria and Senegal soar like a cool breeze. The dunk contest, part of SEED's first Big Man's Camp, is as lopsided as Wade vs. Boykins might be. Mouhamed Seck, listed at 6'3", has already locked up the title with a two-handed 360 that would raise Josh Smith's eyebrows. But for the grand finale, he pulls out all the stops. Four teammates crouch just inside the foul line awaiting Seck's takeoff. How nasty is it? Josh would have been runner-up.

About 40 players compete in the Big Man's Camp, three days of drills and scrimmages run by NBA scouts. It's a far cry from the outdoor workouts the players are used to: 90 minutes of sprints in a sandpit followed by sets of push-ups and sit-ups. Samba (third from right) stands out. He doesn't back down in box-out drills and shows a polished handle and a creative touch from the outside-all skills he picked up at SEED. "If you did a global ranking of the top 50 14-year-olds, Samba would be among that group," says a scout. "If he gets the proper nutrition, gets strong and improves his basketball IQ, he's going to be in the NBA."

Samba's World

His Game Status: Amateur Number Of Coaches: 3 Average Age Of Teammates: 17 Practice Hours In A Week: 20 Games In A Year: 20 Favorite Player: Michael Jordan The African Game Indoor Courts: 90 Pro Leagues: 3 (Angola, Egypt And Tunisia) Countries With Membership In Fiba: 53

With just two indoor courts for 11.7 million people, basketball belongs to the playground in Senegal. But there is so much sand on the asphalt that the action sounds more like shuffleboard. Sometimes, flip-flops are sneakers. Other times, bare feet have to do. No-looks get thrown, alley-oops tossed, mixtape moves tried. Soccer remains king, but hoops is climbing fast.

Four thousand fans jam the courtyard at the University of Dakar to see SEED compete against college-age club teams, who learned the game in youth leagues. They drape over balconies, sit on rooftops, stand shoulder to shoulder along the sidelines. Tracks by Dre, Nas, Fat Joe and Xzibit share the sound system with the hottest Senegalese songs. Players rise to the rim, especially on the basket that is only about nine feet high. SEED, with over a dozen dunks in the final, takes home the trophy in prime-time style.

Fambaye Gueye's son spent hours before the family's 20-inch TV watching videos of Jordan, Iverson and the And1 teams. She winced whenever his head grazed the top of the doorway. So when a relative told her of SEED, she called Fall. But Gueye balked at her 12-year-old's living on a campus 40 miles away. Samba's dad, her ex-husband, changed her mind. "He said give Samba space, let him become a man," Gueye says. Seeing her son six months later, she's glad she listened. "He's more disciplined," she says. " He's not a baby anymore."

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