Detroit Pistons' Ebuka Okorie was selected 17th overall in Tuesday night's NBA Draft, becoming the 27th all time player of Nigerian origin to be drafted into the league, and said he hopes to inspire others of Nigerian background to chase their goals.
Okorie, whose parents are immigrants from Abia State in Nigeria is hoping his journey can be an inspiration to other Nigerians. "This moment means a lot," Okorie said in his first post Draft media availability. "When you talk about my journey, the only reason I'm able to get here is by the grace of God, and my faith is just really big to me.
"My parents have instilled those values into me and my whole family. Being able to inspire other people that may be of Nigerian background, that just have similar upbringing as me.
"Hopefully I can inspire them, show them that hard work pays off, and to just chase your dreams. It doesn't matter where you are from, dream big and you can make it."
The Stanford Cardinal freshman was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder before they sent him to the Memphis Grizzlies, who then dealt him to the Pistons in exchange for Detroit's No. 21 pick, completing a predetermined draft-night trade.
Detroit had been seeking ball handling and shot creation to play alongside star point guard Cade Cunningham, a need president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon identified in his end-of-season news conference.
Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, to Nigerian parents, Okorie took an unconventional path to the NBA.
He attended Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where he developed into one of the nation's top prospects and was named New Hampshire's Gatorade Player of the Year before flipping his college commitment from Harvard to Stanford.
At Stanford, the 6-foot-1 guard became one of college basketball's biggest surprises. Initially viewed as an under-the-radar recruit, Okorie led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring as a freshman, averaging 23.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game, while shooting 46.5% from the field and 35.4% from three-point range.
He finished seventh nationally in scoring, recorded eight 30-point games and set Stanford's freshman single-game scoring record with a 40-point performance against Georgia Tech.
His 719 points were the third-most ever scored by a Stanford player in a single season, earning him All-ACC first-team honours, ACC All-Rookie recognition and Associated Press All-America honourable mention status.
The rapid climb helped transform Okorie from a lightly recruited prospect into a first-round draft pick after playing just one season of college ball.
Okorie said those accomplishments were driven in part by being underrated and proves that hard work is not restricted by geography: "The story of my life has just been me being overlooked.
"Me continuing to work hard and then the hard work paying off, me outperforming expectations. So I'm not expecting anything different to happen here. I'm going to put the work in, and once I get on the court I'm going to let the work show."
Okorie has been described as an elusive guard with the ability to change pace, create his own shot and consistently get to his preferred spots on the floor.
While questions remain about his size and long-term playmaking ceiling, his scoring ability propelled him into the first-round conversation although most draft boards had projected Okorie to go in the 20s of the first round, with one mock draft slotting him as low as 26th.
He went 17th, becoming the highest-drafted player in New Hampshire history, surpassing Concord's Matt Bonner, who was taken 45th overall in 2003.
"What can be learned from my story is that hard work pays off," he said. "For people to know that you can still make it out of New Hampshire in basketball and you don't always have to be from a big city."