Dallas Mavericks’ DeSagana Diop fights poverty in native Senegal
By JEFF CAPLANjcaplan@star-telegram.com
DALLAS — DeSagana Diop came home to the Mavericks in July and realized riches beyond his starriest dreams.
In August he returned home to Senegal and encouraged hopeful teenagers, no different than he once was, to keep reaching for the stars.
The jolly, 7-foot center, a fan favorite locally, is a national hero in his native country.
No matter his address in the NBA, Diop would have returned to his home city of Dakar, the capital of the West African country, to run the kind of basketball camp and tournament he used to attend.
The kind where Amadou Gallo Fall, the Mavs’ vice president of international affairs and director of scouting, discovered a long and lanky 16-year-old named N’gagne DeSagana Diop more than a decade ago. Fall helped bring Diop to the United States, to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, to study and play basketball.
To Diop’s delight as an eighth-year pro, he has the best of both worlds. After going to New Jersey as part of the Jason Kidd trade in February, Diop re-signed with the Mavs as a free agent. In a league lacking proven big men, Diop, a stout shot blocker and rebounder, commanded the full mid-level exception.
He will make about $5.6 million this season and more than $30 million over the life of his five-year contract. One of seven siblings in a middle-class family, Diop was one of the lucky ones. His parents, both educators, could afford to send him to private school and outfit him with one pair of shoes a year.
"When I go there and see those kids playing, I just see myself playing," Diop said. "You go out there to parts of Senegal and you see kids playing without any shoes on, and that’s not even on a court like you’re talking about, [but] on dirt.
"It’s tough to see kids like that. It breaks your heart. I do anything I can do to help them and hope they make it like I made it."
Diop’s camp and tournament work in conjunction with the SEEDS Academy, which Fall, a 6-9 native of Senegal who never made it to the NBA, created in 2003. SEEDS stands for Sports for Education and Economic Development. The academy does not promise a career in basketball, but rather a platform for a greater education and future.
Diop, 26, hopes to bring teammates and other NBA players to his camp in the future to open eyes to the vastly differing perceptions of poverty and opportunity.
"We survived; I was eating," Diop said of his childhood. "Poor there is like nothing here. People say they grew up poor; they’re not. They grow up in the ’hood; that’s not the ’hood, man. In Senegal, poor is you don’t have electricity, you eat once a day."
Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson attended Diop’s camp with Fall, plus former NBA player Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a group of NBA assistant coaches and legendary coach Ben Jobe, who mentored former Mavs coach Avery Johnson at Southern University.
"The thing that makes DeSagana special is his willingness to roll up his sleeves and go to work with the kids," Nelson said. "He’s never forgotten where he comes from."
Johnson joined Diop at the camp two years ago. Yet, that relationship soured last season as Diop’s playing time and happiness diminished under Johnson’s tightening grip.
"I was a pro about it. I was upset, I was down. I’m not going to lie," Diop said. "I want to play. Even now, I made all this money; I want to play. It’s not about the money. I want to play."
In coach Rick Carlisle’s up-tempo, motion offense, Diop and fellow center Erick Dampier are finding new usefulness by being included more in the scheme.
Constant motion, screens and cutting create open space for them to get the ball in high-percentage areas, and Carlisle said he’s not afraid to throw it to them.
In the first three preseason games, Diop and Carlisle have discovered that Diop needs to improve his conditioning before the regular-season starts. Still, Carlisle said he’s been impressed with Diop’s rebounding and his disruptiveness on defense.
Diop’s grabbing 7.7 rebounds and recording nearly a block-and-a-half a game. Offensively, he’s averaged nearly five points a game in 19 minutes — his career average is 2.1 points — and that’s having shot just 40 percent from the field and 60 percent from the free-throw line.
"We’re way more involved now with pick-and-roll and they’re looking for us more now," Diop said. "With the movement we’re doing, we’re going to get the ball."
Diop has come off the bench behind Dampier in the first three preseason games, but he’s averaging four more minutes a game. Carlisle, who has said the starting job is open, plans to start Diop at some point during the remaining five preseason games.
Starter or not, the Mavs made it a priority to get Diop back. New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul and center Tyson Chandler were in command inside in the first round of the playoffs with Dampier as the lone center.
And that had to change in a Western Conference that’s getting bigger inside.
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