By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
For the better part of a decade, Baylor men’s basketball has been quietly developing a strong tradition of African centers.
From national champions Flo Thamba and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua to recent first-round NBA draft pick Yves Missi, the center position has become an institution. And now Asaba, Nigeria native Josh Ojianwuna — a Tchamwa Tchatchoua disciple and the latest Baylor post presence to join the movement — is ready to continue the legacy.
“I feel like it’s a great opportunity for me, because when I was trying to commit here, Jon was here,” Ojianwuna said. (Both players previously spent time at the NBA Global Academy in Australia.) “It was actually good for me, being able to talk to someone who’s African like me, who also played at the NBA Academy, and who is also playing at the school I want to commit to. So then that actually helped me a lot.”
“Everyday Jon” played a key role in recruiting Ojianwuna to Baylor, as did head coach Scott Drew. Both sold him on the same vision: culture and post-career success. Ojianwuna was all in.
“One thing that stood out for me was … most of the time when I’m on a Zoom call with other schools [during the recruiting process], the head coach is not the present,” Ojianwuna said. “I’m only talking to the assistant, and every time, only talk about basketball, basketball. But when I got on a Zoom call with Baylor, Coach Drew was on the Zoom call and he didn’t just talk about basketball to me. He thought about school … He wants me to get my degree because he knows I’m not going to play basketball for life.
“And also he said if I want him to speak to my mom, they can talk and stuff like that. So I feel like, okay, out of all the schools that have been calling me, this is this place that kind of cares about not just what I’m going to give to the school, like my playing time and stuff, but also, they care about me when I’m done playing.”
Tchamwa Tchatchoua, who served as a sort of player-coach last season as a fifth-year senior, took his role as a mentor for players like Ojianwuna seriously. He helped set the program’s standard and built on the ‘Culture of JOY’ that characterized the Bears’ 2020-21 National Championship team.
“I don’t play 35 minutes a game, … but just because of my attitude and who I am, [the younger players] believe that they can listen to me,” Tchamwa Tchatchoua said in March. “They can talk to me, and I can calm them down. It’s just like a great practice for me.”
Ojianwuna nearly never played basketball. Growing up in Nigeria, he played soccer, mostly as a “very, very good” striker (by his own estimation). Basketball was the furthest thing from his mind, though family friends often told him to “play basketball, you’re so tall.” But in a twist of fate, tragedy brought him to the sport he now loves.
When Ojianwuna was about 13 years old, his father was sent to the hospital following a serious car accident. The radiographer who performed the X-rays and CT scans recommended Josh to a basketball coach, kickstarting a lifelong journey to the hardwood.
Focused on his burgeoning soccer career, Ojianwuna didn’t want to switch sports. But thanks to some encouragement from his dad — “Let’s give it a try,” Josh recalls him saying — he decided to hit the court.
“I went the first day,” Ojianwuna said. “Mmm. Didn’t like it, didn’t want to go back. But my dad is like, ‘It’s the first day, so keep trying.’ So, I kept going, and I’m going, and all of a sudden I just loved it.”
The first rush of adrenaline came on Ojianwuna’s second day of basketball practice, when he rose up for his first-ever dunk. Not bad for a 13-year-old.
“People at the stadium went crazy,” said Ojianwuna, who was already tall then and now stands 6-foot-10. “So I felt like, ‘Oh, people like me playing this sport.’ So I feel like that’s how I fell in love, because I got my first dunk. And since then, I just started playing. I just love basketball.”
Driven by a sense of filial piety, Ojianwuna saw professional basketball as a way to make enough money to pay for his father’s medical treatments. But in Oct. 2017, a few months after leaving home for the NBA Academy in Saly, Senegal, he received a world-stopping phone call.
“When I got the call saying he passed, it felt like my whole dream just shattered,” Ojianwuna said. “He was one of the reasons why I started playing anyways. It was kind of a struggle for me. I had to go home. I had to man up, be there for my mom … be there and comfort her and stuff. So then, growing up, I was like, ‘Why’d this happen? Why’d this happen? I was trying to help my dad. God, why’d this happen?'”
After spending time grieving with his family, Ojianwuna returned to Senegal and eventually transferred to the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, Australia. In many ways, as a Division I starter at one of the nation’s premier basketball programs, he’s reached many of the goals he set out to achieve. But he never did forget his father, or the crash, or the doctor who changed his life. Or the God he’s now able to thank for the beauty in the pain.
“I’ve gotten to a place where I take it as a blessing for me,” Ojianwuna said. “I feel like if my father didn’t get into a car crash, I wouldn’t have met the doctor who was supposed to do an X-ray, who referred me to a coach, who made me start playing basketball. So, I know it’s a tragedy of me losing my dad, but if I look at the situation, because of what happened, I’m in this place where I am today. So I think that’s a blessing.”
This season, for the first time, Ojianwuna enters the year as Baylor’s presumptive starter at center. With a roster heavily built around smaller perimeter playmakers, he’ll be asked to carry an increased load defending the rim and cleaning the glass. There’s no clear backup plan if he goes down. In many ways, the Bears’ season will go as he goes. He’ll play every minute with his father’s memory emblazoned across his chest.
“My two years playing here, I wore number 15, but now I’m switching to 17 because I lost my dad in 2017,” Ojianwuna said. “I’m trying to honor him by carrying on his legacy.”
Three years in at Baylor, he’s paid his dues. He’s learned his craft and mentality from program legends. Now, it all comes down to proving himself on the court.
“We’ve really been blessed to have guys come in that have embraced our culture and worked hard to get better each and every year,” Drew said of Ojianwuna’s new role. “And when it was time for their number to be called or they became starters, they were ready for it.”
