Pascal
Siakam
Cameroon
·
Basketball
Date of birth | 2 April 1994 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Douala |
Age | 31 |
Nationality | Cameroon |
Career start | 2016 |
Disciplines | 5x5 Basketball |
Pascal Siakam didn’t start playing organised basketball until the age of 17, but by the age of 26 he was an NBA champion.
Pascal's journey started in Douala, Cameroon, in a family of six siblings. Even though his older brothers – Boris, Christian and James – all eventually went to play Division I college basketball in America, Pascal had other plans. He was more interested in soccer.
His father, Tchamo, who passed away in 2014, enrolled his youngest son at a Catholic seminary and sports seemed the furthest thing from Pascal’s career path. And then, everything changed.
After an invite to a Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa at the age of 16, Pascal went to a prep school in Texas and later played college basketball at New Mexico State, before he was drafted in the first round by the Toronto Raptors in 2016.
Pascal went from a promising prospect in his rookie NBA season to a bench player in his second year and blossomed into the starting power forward of a championship team in his third season, earning the league's Most Improved Player award en route to the Raptors first-ever NBA championship
In Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, Pascal announced himself to the rest of the basketball world with a 32 point performance, scoring 11 straight shots at one point, the most consecutive baskets by anyone in a Finals game in the past 20 seasons.
Pascal has continued to excel for the Raptors, being named as a starter in the 2020 NBA All-Star Game and then again in 2023. It's been an incredible journey so far and there could yet be much more to come.