This story appears in the Sept. 23, 2019, issue of Sports Illustrated. For more great storytelling and in-depth analysis, subscribe to the magazine and get up to 94% off the cover price. Click here for more.
I founded Giants of Africa in 2003. In the beginning... the goal was to uncover talent. I was saying to myself, "How do we find the next Hakeem Olajuwon?" Back then I was a scout for the Nuggets. That first camp we hosted was in Nigeria, my home country. We used baby blue Denver gear for all the campers. Kiki Vandeweghe was our GM at the time, and he told our equipment manager to get me the cheapest shorts and practice jerseys we had, so that we could get as many uniforms as possible.