User:Mosmof/Makhtar N'Diaye (basketball)

Makhtar Vincent N'Diaye (born December 12, 1973) is a Senegalese former basketball player who played as a power forward and center. He played for the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1999 to became the first player from Senegal to join and play in the National Basketball Association.

Born in Diourbel, N'Diaye came to the United States to play high school basketball at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. He was recruited to play at Wake Forest by Coach Dave Odom, but was ruled ineligible to play by the National Collegiate Athletic Association because of recruiting violation and transferred to Michigan. After two seasons there, he transferred again to North Carolina. After sitting out one season, N'Diaye played under coaches Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge, making the NCAA Tournament Final Four in 1997 and 1998. After he went unselected in the 1998 NBA Draft, he signed as a free agent with the Grizzlies.

He played 4 games for Vancouver in the 1998-99 NBA season before he was traded to the Orlando Magic, who released him before the 1999-2000 season. He continued his career in Europe, mostly in the French league, save for a season-long stint with the North Charleston Lowgators of the NBA Development League.

He represented Senegal at the FIBA World Championship in 1998 and 2006, and played on the team that won the FIBA Africa Championship in 1997.

He is currently a sports agent for the Wasserman Media Group.

Early life
N'Diaye was born in Diourbel and raised in Dakar. His mother Victorine competed for Senegal in the 200m sprint at the 1976 Olympics and his father was a diplomat.

N'Diaye was discovered by Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, who was at a tournament in Paris to recruit Jerry Stackhouse and N'Diaye was playing for a French team in the tournament. He gave Odom a verbal commitment to attend Wake Forest, and Odom encouraged him to attend Oak Hill Academy, a preparatory school in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, to meet his academic requirements.

At Oak Hill, N'Diaye played with Stackhouse and Jeff McInnis, both future North Carolina Tar Heels and NBA pros, where his coach Steve Smith called him a "big time talent", and that "he's got perimeter skills, he really runs the floor, he blocks shots like a 7-footer, and he can play inside or out."

Recruitment to Wake Forest and transfer to Michigan
After his stint at Oak Hill Academy, N'Diaye enrolled at Wake Forest, where Coach Dave Odom saw him as a replacement for the departed Rodney Rogers. However, the NCAA ruled that Wake Forest had committed recruiting violations, specifically with Coach Dave Odom's hiring of N'Diaye's interpreter, and he was not allowed to play for the Demon Deacons, although he practiced with the teams and attended classes for the first semester. But because the violations were considered minor, N'Diaye was allowed to transfer to another school and play without sitting a year out. N'Diaye's disqualification and departure also afforded immediate playing time for fellow Wake Forest freshman and big man Tim Duncan, whom Odom had considered red-shirting that year.

In January 1994, N'Diaye visited Michigan, who needed to replace Chris Webber, who had entered the 1993 NBA Draft, and UCLA. , before choosing to play for Michigan. In his two seasons at Michigan, he averaged 1.7 points and 2.2 rebounds the first year, and 5.0 points and 5.2 rebounds a year.

North Carolina
In September 1995, N'Diaye transfered again, this time from Michigan to North Carolina, although he had previously promised Wake Forest coach Dave Odom that he would not go to another team in the Atlantic Coast Conference. N'Diaye was the first and only transfer North Carolina coach Dean Smith has accepted from a four-year university. Smith explained that the roster had been depleted by the departures of Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace to the 1995 NBA Draft, as well as Donald Williams, Pat Sullivan and Pearce Landry to graduation, leaving Smith with just five upperclassmen on his team.

North America
After he went unselected in the 1998 NBA Draft, N'Diaye signed with the Vancouver Grizzlies on January 21, 1999. He played four games for the remainder of the 1998-1999 NBA season, becoming the first player from Senegal in the National Basketball Association, for a total of 27 minutes on the floor and five points scored. In August that year, the Grizzlies traded N'Diaye, along with Lee Mayberry, Rodrick Rhodes and Michael Smith, to the Orlando Magic in a three-team trade that sent the rights to Vancouver's first round pick, Steve Francis, to the Houston Rockets. The Magic waived N'Diaye in September, before the start of the 1999-2000 NBA season.

N'Diaye continued his career in France, but he was in the training camp roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers in October 2001, and he was waived before the start of the 2001-2002 NBA season. In November that year, the North Charleston Lowgators of the NBA Development League picked him third overall in the 2001 NBDL Supplemental Draft. N'Diaye finished the season with 48 games played, and 6.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.