Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Tanzania Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The first basketball player from Tanzania to reach the NBA, and the second overall pick in the 2009 draft.
Hasheem Thabeet grew up in Dar es Salaam and did not touch a basketball until he was fifteen, by which time he was already well over two metres tall. He was spotted at a local court, sent to high school in the United States, and arrived speaking little English and knowing almost none of the game.
Four years later he was the defensive player of the year in American college basketball at Connecticut, leading the country in blocked shots, and in 2009 the Memphis Grizzlies took him second overall in the NBA draft — behind Blake Griffin and ahead of James Harden and Stephen Curry. No Tanzanian had been drafted at all.
The professional career did not match the selection; he played five seasons across four teams, mostly off the bench, and finished in Japan and in the developmental leagues. But the draft position is a fact about what a boy from Dar es Salaam did in four years with a game he had never seen, and he remains the reason basketball is played seriously in Tanzanian schools. He has since worked on the NBA's academies in Africa.
Four years later he was the defensive player of the year in American college basketball at Connecticut, leading the country in blocked shots, and in 2009 the Memphis Grizzlies took him second overall in the NBA draft — behind Blake Griffin and ahead of James Harden and Stephen Curry. No Tanzanian had been drafted at all.
The professional career did not match the selection; he played five seasons across four teams, mostly off the bench, and finished in Japan and in the developmental leagues. But the draft position is a fact about what a boy from Dar es Salaam did in four years with a game he had never seen, and he remains the reason basketball is played seriously in Tanzanian schools. He has since worked on the NBA's academies in Africa.
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