Jonathan kuminga is going to be a for sure lottery pick in the next nba draft and currently right now he’s bawling in the g league on a 500 000 contract even though that sounds really great and things couldn’t get any better for this guy he hasn’t always been at the top and he had to really struggle to get to where he’s at today and in today’s video i’m just here to
Explain to you his story jaylen green is the guy that’s getting all the media attention and hype in this rookie class or whatever you want to call them when green was building up his hype last year it was rightfully so he’s a generational type of talent but however at the same time people were forgetting just how great jonathan kuminga is and this isn’t coming from me some and
Even most people think kuminga is better than jalen that’s debatable and we’re not here to talk about that we’re here to talk about kuminga’s story i’m not just saying this when i tell you this is arguably the most inspirational story we’ve ever done on this channel i mean it if you’re an underdog right now and you’re a basketball player you’re gonna want to stick around for
This because you can relate to this story and you already know we gotta throw it all the way back to where things started jonathan’s had one heck of a journey and he’s done it in a short amount of time i want to get this out there too this is a little random fact but he’s only 18. that’s mind-boggling he’s younger than almost every player and prospect in his class
He grew up in the democratic republic of the congo there’s no other way to say this a lot of hoopers say oh i got it out the trenches and i got it out the mud but he literally got it up the mud he was poor his family was poor and everyone around him was poor there was nothing out there and if you don’t believe my words just listen to what kuminga had to say himself
Quote unquote first of all there’s no money there’s no food so not only did they not have money but they often find themselves hungry and they didn’t have anything to eat so they had to starve some nights before we go on i just want to say that we really in the united states take what we got for granted i know not everyone watching this is from the u.s but a majority is so if you woke up today and you got food
We just need to be thankful anyways back on topic with our video because we got a long way to go he followed that quote up by saying this when i started playing we used to walk far away to find a court there aren’t gems all over like you see here referring to the us here you walk down two blocks and you find a gym referring to the us you’ve gotta walk like 45 minutes to get to wherever you
Gotta go play back home then after that you gotta make sure you get back home on time because there’s so much stuff out there you might even find some people that are just going to see you on the road and stab you try to kill you it’s kind of dangerous the only words i have for that right there is wow we really do take it for granted that we can just drive
20 30 minutes and find a park or a gym back where he’s from though you couldn’t do that a little fun factor though in there that i found interesting when doing research for this video is that his cousin is emmanuel moodier i don’t know how they’re related but they are so i found that pretty cool even though he grew up in a very difficult situation he just tried to make the best out of it
Basketball wasn’t something that he just started playing when he was 14 or 15 like many kids over there he was playing his entire life so just like many hoopers do he used that as a gateway when he was growing up he was always playing on every single local team back at his home but eventually it became clear not only to him but many other people that he was passionate
And good at basketball there’s a difference from being passionate and knowing you’re not good but everyone around this kid knew that he could be something great so those same people are the ones who persuaded him to go to the united states for him to reach his full potential and ultimately to make a long story short with a lot of thought and discussion he did just that at only the age of 13.
He hopped on a plane flew to the u.s and left his entire family and that is tough but you gotta make sacrifices here’s what he had to say about it that decision wasn’t that hard because when i used to play back home our team used to go all over but not to other countries we used to go around the country so leaving my parents wasn’t that hard the last day i heard i was going to come over i made that decision
I was like i gotta man up i gotta grow up i’m going to see them one day so i just gotta come over and continue to reach my goal i feel like i say this every time but those are very mature words from such a young kid it’s not like he wanted to but he knew to better himself he had to leave his family when he got to the us it wasn’t as simple as you think he wasn’t a big time
Player just yet but that changed very quickly once it got to the us he started playing at huntington prep in west virginia as just a freshman this is when every recruiter out there began to draw attention and go who is this guy but he transferred again to a high school in new york for his sophomore year and averaged 25 points per game five rebounds and five assists when it was all said and done for that
Terrific sophomore season he was named the max preps national sophomore of the year and that is when his ranking jumped to the number one player in the espn rankings and from that point on the rest is literally being written in its current history that we’re witnessing here’s the last quote i’mma use from jonathan and here’s what he had to say about getting to that number one
Spot back home they see me all over it’s a big thing they’re all happy for me everybody is super hyped posting me all the time that motivates me too when i left home i told my mom i was going to be number one in everything i do i worked hard and that’s how i got to this point man just such an inspirational story and his life changed so much within three to four years when
He was 13 he left to come to the us nobody knew who he was and by the time he was a junior he was the number one player in the country that he’s not even from it’s remarkable it is there’s no other way to put it that’s why the us is the land of opportunities there’s no excuse to not be great in the united states you have all the resources you need i don’t think some you quite understand
How unbelievable it is for a guy to come over to a different country and be the number one player in that country we see it sometimes with canadian players coming to the us but that’s not that far of a difference canada us they’re right beside each other but the congo is nowhere near the u.s so flash forward in time to our current date he’s playing for the g league at night team in the g league and
He’s balling out and arguably the best player on the team there’s been a bunch of mock drafts coming up and a lot of people think he’s easily going to be a top 5 pick some people think he could go number one but it’s debatable regardless of that he’s making 500k this year for the g league and if he goes in the lottery he’s going to be a multi-millionaire
And that’s crazy if you think about it because just four to five years ago he was poor and didn’t have any food to eat i know it’s corny but it’s something i tell myself you gotta trust the process and this kid has done exactly that it’s not a fluke either he put in the work and he’s getting rewarded for it i’m wishing kuminga his family and everyone around him the best of luck and i hope he continues to see a lot of
Success in his basketball career let me know in the comment section what you think about his story but without that being said that’s gonna wrap up this video i hope you guys enjoyed hope you guys learned something if you’re new to the channel what are you doing join the family hit that subscribe button and leave a like for more and as always let’s be great i’m out yeah peace
