Thursday, February 10, 2000
Stuff's Samake has attention of NBA scouts
BY PETE HOLTERMANN
Enquirer contributor
Kenyon Martin is not the only center in town catching the eye of NBA scouts.
Six NBA teams had representatives at the Firstar Center Sunday to see 7-foot-2 Soumaila Samake of the Cincinnati Stuff score eight points, grab 12 rebounds and block seven shots in a 109-89 victory over New Mexico.
Samake, a 21-year-old native of West Africa, is the only member of the Stuff eligible for the draft, because he is a foreign-born player who won't reach the Draft-maximum age of 23 until next March.
The NBA scouts are finding that Samake is a raw player, but one with a bright future.
“He has a great potential upside,” Boston Celtics scout Winston Bennett said.
Samake's strengths include his league-best 2.9 blocks per game, a field-goal percentage of .609 that is second in the IBL, and his average of 7.8 rebounds a game that is seventh-best in the league. He also runs the floor well and has shown a good shooting touch from as far out as 15 feet to help his average of 9.4 points a game.
When you are 7-2 with those skills, the NBA gets excited.
“It's rare to find that, and that's why people are coming to see him play,” said Darrell Hedric, director of scouting for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Samake is drawing comparisons to Dikembe Mutombo of the Atlanta Hawks.
“He definitely blocks shots like Mutombo,” Bennett said. “Soumaila's probably a better overall athlete. I think he'll be a better offensive player.”
Success in basketball has brought Samake a long way from his family's farm in the small town of Boudouni, Mali.
Stuff coach Joby Wright and assistant Scott Spinelli first heard of Samake three years ago when they were coaching at the University of Wyoming. They tried to recruit him, but Samake opted to play professionally in Slovenia so he could make money to support his family in Africa.
Spinelli moved on to American University and went to the African Games to recruit other players. That's when he met Samake for the first time.
“I was taken back by this intense, gangly kid,” Spinelli said.
Watching Samake play on an outdoor court with thousands of bats flying overhead, Spinelli knew he had found a talent.
“The most intriguing thing to me was his understanding of the game for a kid who really hadn't been playing all that long (four years) and been playing with minimal coaching,” he said.
When Wright and Spinelli got back together to work for the Stuff this year, they immediately tracked down Samake and made him their 12th-round pick in the IBL Draft.
Now that he is in the United States, Samake, who is still learning English, says he has one goal: “I just want to be able to play in the NBA.”
Samake's best basketball is ahead of him. He is working on bulking up and has added 12 pounds to his 230-pound frame already this season.
In addition, Samake continues to work on some of the finer points of the game. Samake leads the Stuff with 82 turnovers this season, many coming on plays when he simply isn't ready to receive the ball or on three-second calls. He also gets into foul trouble, having fouled out four times, and gotten five fouls in six other games.
“He's only scratching the surface of what he can do physically. He's only scratching the surface of what he can learn about the game,” Wright said.
“Soumaila is like a sponge; he wants to learn. He has a lot of natural ability, and he probably has one of the best basketball mentalities on our team.”
Wright is thankful that all the effort to find Samake is paying off for him and the team.
“We feel it's been a very unique situation where you hear about a kid several years before you get him,” said Wright, “and when you get him, you see that he is absolutely what you thought he'd be.”
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