A is for Abigail

thedailyfeed:

All eyes are on this 7-foot-5 basketball star, but Mamadou Ndiaye is still a junior at Brethren Christian High School in Huntington Beach, Calif. The college scouts — and Guinness Book of World Records! — might have to wait a year or two.

The 18-year-old native of Senegal stands 7-foot-5, weighs 310 pounds and wears size 19½ lime green Nike Zoom Kobe VI shoes. At 89 inches, Ndiaye is two inches taller than anyone currently toiling in the NBA even though he plays for a tiny private school (enrollment: 250) that currently does not even have its own gym. While his stats may be skewed due to the Warriors competing in California’s third-smallest class (5-AA), Bahnsen has little doubt that his player who ducks through doorways has an unlimited ceiling.

“Right now his game is basically catch, turn, drop-step, dunk,” says the 5-foot-11 Bahnsen, whose own college coach was a 7-footer from a foreign country, former NBA center Swen Nater of the Netherlands. “But this kid’s going to play professionally some day. The minute Mamadou enrolled I became a much better basketball coach.”

Photo: John Chapple for The Daily