Roughly three years ago, Mohamed Bamba walked into the Mullaly Recreational Center in The Bronx. The Harlem native didn’t know it at the time, but that was the beginning of his rapid ascent from a kid who played basketball just because he was tall into one of the country’s most prized high school prospects.
It was his first workout with the PSA Cardinals, an AAU team on its way to becoming a national powerhouse. Program director Terrence “Munch” Williams wanted to test Bamba immediately, so he threw him in with “the big dogs,” as Bamba called them. The group included Nets forward Chris McCullough, UConn sophomore Terry Larrier, Kansas freshman Cheick Diallo and St. John’s freshman Kassoum Yakwe.
Bamba struggled in those initial workouts, but he came back the next day. And the day after. And the day after.
“I think it was a complete shock [for him] to be in that environment, but he battled,” Williams said in a phone interview this week. “You had to salute him and think his future was bright. This kid liked a challenge.”
“That’s where I really started embracing hard work,” Bamba said.
But nobody could have predicted this. In three years, he quickly has become a hot commodity, a consensus top-three junior prospect in the country, a 6-foot-11 big man so versatile and talented Williams calls him “Little Ticket,” a reference to Kevin Garnett’s “Big Ticket” nickname. He has landed more scholarship offers than his age from the likes of Kentucky, Duke and Villanova, in addition to locals St. John’s and Seton Hall.
“It’s definitely happened really fast,” Bamba said. “I’m kind of surprised there are this many schools. I didn’t know anything about college basketball last year.”
Bamba isn’t only a tireless worker. He’s a smart worker, too, according to Westtown School in West Chester, Pa., coach Seth Berger. Bamba doesn’t waste time. He gets as much work done in one workout as others his age get in two. He put on 18 pounds of muscle in the last two years and now is a solid 208 pounds. He averaged 18 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks per game this year for the powerhouse prep school and never fouled out of a game despite his shot-blocking prowess.
“To be able to average six blocks and never be in foul trouble means he’s so smart,” Berger said. “Mo is blessed with winning the genetic lottery. He’s tall, he’s long, he’s athletic, he’s coordinated, and on top of that, he’s super smart. He’s blessed to have every gift you can want to be a high-level athlete.
“He didn’t grow up as a highly ranked kid. He turned into one very quickly. You can’t get that much better as quickly as he has without working extremely hard.”
Basketball has become Bamba’s passion and his future profession, but it’s not his entire life. He takes particular pride in his grades, a “work in progress,” he said, despite receiving mostly A’s and B’s. He wants to be more than a basketball player.
“I’m really looking forward to making changes for my city, if not the world, with my talents,” Bamba said. “Get out, talk to kids, tell them how important school work is. I think everything happens for a reason, and I don’t think it would happen if my grades didn’t look how they do.”
Bamba soon will return to March workouts with the PSA Cardinals, back to where his rise began. He can’t wait.
After all, Bamba is one of the big dogs now.
St. John’s is hosting Bamba and fellow junior Brandon Randolph of the Westtown School, signee Shamorie Ponds of Thomas Jefferson, Archbishop Molloy freshman Cole Anthony, Archbishop Stepinac sophomore Aundre Hyatt and Ranney School (N.J.) freshmen Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine for its game Saturday against Providence at the Garden.
Ponds was invited to the Jordan Brand All-American Game, a national showcase to be played at Barclays Center on April 15. The four-star guard is the only local player involved in the nationally televised game.
At its win over Xavier on Sunday, Seton Hall hosted signee Myles Powell, along with Hudson Catholic (N.J.) sophomores Jahvon Quinerly and Luther Muhammad, St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) senior Bourama Sidibe and junior David Beatty, Delaware junior Myles Cale, Pennsylvania junior Taylor Funk and Roselle (N.J.) Catholic sophomore Atiba Taylor.