Photo : Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0
Luc Mbah a Moute
The ‘Prince’ who opened the NBA to young Cameroonians
Born in 1986
Related city : Yaoundé
Who are they?
A forward born in Yaoundé in 1986. Trained in Florida at Montverde Academy and then at UCLA, where he reached three consecutive Final Fours, he was picked 37th in the 2008 draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.
What made them famous
A respected defender, he played in the NBA from 2008 to 2020, for Milwaukee, Sacramento, Minnesota, Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston. Yet his most lasting legacy lies elsewhere: the basketball camps he ran in Cameroon discovered Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam.
Key facts
- The son of a village chief, he holds the title of prince, hence his NBA nickname.
- In 2014 he became Joel Embiid’s teammate at the Philadelphia 76ers.
- After his playing career he became a player agent at CAA, with a focus on Africa.