Boston Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell told ESPN that African basketball has developed to the point where players from the continent no longer have to mirror his former Houston Rockets teammate, Hakeem Olajuwon.
Cassell, having arrived in Johannesburg for Basketball without Borders last year, made an observation which echoed one previously made by another former teammate of theirs with the Rockets, Clyde Drexler, on a visit to South Africa last December.
Drexler had told ESPN: "For a while, there was only the big guys - Manute Bol, [Dikembe] Mutombo, Hakeem.