Festus Ezeli: “Nothing Is Impossible With God”
Making it to the NBA is regarded as one of the hardest things to do in professional sports. Many players start learning and strategizing their path to the league as early as 6-years-old.
Which is what makes it incredible that Festus Ifeanyi Chukwu Ezeli was drafted just eight years after he first learned the game, making possible what many would consider impossible.
It All Started With A Name
Ifeanyi Chukwu translates to “Nothing is impossible with God” in Igbo, the name which Festus says his grandfather gave him and has been ominous in his life and career.
Born in Benin, Nigeria where he grew up with his large family as the first of five children, Festus Ezeli knew nothing of basketball through the first half of his life. His aspirations at the time were that of being a doctor; before basketball changed everything.
In an episode of Africans In Sports, Festus was more than happy to share his childhood memories with host, COSeezy, stating expressly how much he enjoyed living in Nigeria and dispelling a few stereotypes in the process.
Ezeli finished high school in Nigeria, graduating at a young age of just 14-years-old. To celebrate, his family travelled to America on vacation, a trip that changed his life forever.
Coming To America
As a 14-year-old, Festus was already really tall, standing at 6 feet 8 inches, and while that didn’t mean too much back home in Nigeria, while on vacation in America it attracted him attention, and a lot of questions about basketball, a sport he knew nothing about at the time.
This prompted his uncle who lived and worked as a paediatrician in America to convince his parents to let him stay back from their vacation and focus on getting a good education towards his goal of being a medical doctor while playing basketball.
Festus spoke with COSeezy on why his focus shifted from being a medical doctor to becoming an NBA player. He cited the bigger platform as a reason since his main goal was to help as many people as possible.
“At the time going into medicine was my love, that’s how I wanted to help people but basketball came into my life, I started working on it and fell in love with basketball and I just wanted to figure out a way to use that to help the world instead,” said Ezeli on his change of career path.
He also cited an African NBA legend, Dikembe Mutombo as his inspiration for his choice, stating his desire to follow in his footsteps and help as many people as possible with his resources as a basketball player, rather than being a doctor.
A Long-Awaited Return Home
He returned to Nigeria in 2019 for the first time since he left and put his plan to help people into motion, setting up a basketball camp, he describes the experience passionately during the interview.
“The fact that I was able to do a basketball camp in Nigeria, a sport that I learned when I came to America, I knew nothing about the game, then I came here, and I took that back home to these kids, 14, 15, 16iyear-old kids, the same age I was when I started learning how to play basketball, it’s a blessing for me to do these things, I don’t ever take none of it for granted.”
Festus spoke further on his trip back home to Nigeria with excitement in his voice, “First time going back in 15 years since I’ve been in America, I came here in 2004 on vacation, I’ve been in America for 15 years.”
“There’s happiness to be back there because I’m home, all my cousins and my family that I was so close to growing up, I get to see them, I got to reconnect with my grandma”
Adjusting To Life In America
As expected Ezeli faced a lot of challenges, in a new country. Trying to fit in and learning a new sport from scratch at 15-year-old was tough on him.
“I’m trying to learn this new game, but I don’t understand what’s going on, there’s three-man weaves, there’s layup lines, I don’t understand none of the terminologies, it’s just madness,” Ezeli said about his early days in basketball.
He also recalls his very first made basket in an organised basketball game. He scored against his own team, giving an idea of how far behind he was in terms of knowledge of the game, a story Festus now looks back on as inspirational.
“Till today I hold on to that story because it shows that you can do anything, literally anything you put your mind to, nothing is impossible with God.”
At 16, he enrolled part-time in community college, having already completed his high school education back in Nigeria. Although very raw, he had obvious potential. His size and athleticism attracted top colleges recruiting him on scholarships just two years after picking up the ball for the first time.
He picked Vanderbilt over Boston College, Harvard and Connecticut, all Division 1 colleges and although he struggled to keep up in his first two seasons, he would go on to make up for it with the following two seasons when he finally got the hang of the game.
Joining Elite Company
In the 2012 NBA draft, Festus Ezeli went 30th overall to the Golden State Warriors, just eight years after he moved to America on what he now describes as “the best vacation ever” and had no knowledge of the game.
Ifeanyi Chukwu a.k.a Nothing is impossible with God, made history in his third NBA season. He played a vital part in the Warriors historic run to winning the NBA Championship alongside Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. This win secured his place in African basketball history becoming the second Nigerian to win an NBA Championship after Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.
Ezeli speaks proudly of this feat during the interview and describes his emotions at the time to COSeezy, “I am the second Nigerian, next to Hakeem to win a championship,” the big man eagerly stated.
Festus Ezeli recognises the kind of favour he got with his unusual path to the league and does not take it for granted, which is why he’s so keen on giving back to the community. His previous trip to Nigeria has seen him set up a basketball clinic and workshops to give young players opportunities he didn’t have here in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, injuries have played a huge part in slowing him down. He joined the Portland Trail Blazers in 2016 and got injured, underwent surgery and got waived by the Blazers before he played a single game for them.
Now currently unattached to any team, Ezeli is definitely no stranger to adversity and believes his injury problems too shall pass like every other tough time he’s ever faced.
His words of encouragement to the younger generation of Nigerian basketball players are, “When you have a dream and are willing to pay the price for it, it is possible.”