Ex-BBNaija housemate Hermes Iyele has remained closely connected to basketball despite his success in the entertainment industry. In this interview with ABIODUN ADEWALE, he discusses his basketball dream, love for LeBron James and plans to contribute to the sport in Nigeria\n<\/p>\n
Before dancing and Big Brother Naija, there was basketball for you. How did that journey start?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0At the beginning, I started playing basketball because I was trying to get a scholarship to go to school abroad, which I did, but I didn\u2019t get the visa. But I kept playing, and after Big Brother Naija, I got the opportunity to work with the NBA here. For me, what that means is that even though I had a basketball plan, basketball had other plans for me because I am still influencing the entire sports industry in Nigeria. There is no such thing as a waste, in my opinion, because that is what basketball taught me. I just kept playing because I really love this sport. Even right now, I still play basketball every Tuesday and Thursday. It\u2019s a thing for me.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0What position do you play, and how would you describe your style on the court?<\/p>\n
\u00a0I get the ball, get in there and just ball. I play small forward, but for my height, I\u2019m not tall enough to play that. I am supposed to be a guard or a point guard. I\u2019ve been playing so well as a small forward, so it is what it is.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Is there any basketball player in Nigeria or abroad whose style you can relate to?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jordan. They call me Jordan on the basketball court because that is my style of play. Against all odds, I just go and get it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Have you ever considered playing basketball for Nigeria professionally?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0That might have been possible if I got the chance to go to school and play abroad. Even now, playing the sport professionally would require me to maybe have a year of conditioning. If I get the opportunity to do that, I am not alien to it. I will get back into the gym, work out, and get my body back in shape to play at that level of competition. If I get that opportunity, I am taking it.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0You are also a dancer. How does dancing connect with basketball for you?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0It\u2019s intertwined. Sports has its footwork, dancing has its footwork, and I feel like because I dance well, I am able to play basketball a lot better. It\u2019s like dancing for me; it\u2019s almost the same thing. <\/p>\n
\u00a0What is your favourite NBA team?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Team LeBron. Any team LeBron is on is the team I am with.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Were you surprised by LeBron James\u2019 move to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer?<\/p>\n
\u00a0I wasn\u2019t shocked. I knew he was most likely going to leave the Lakers after last season. I didn\u2019t know where exactly he was going to go, though. I\u2019m not going to lie, his going to the Philadelphia 76ers wasn\u2019t expected. He\u2019s there right now, and that\u2019s the team I am supporting.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0From your experience and knowledge of the game, what do you think about the state of Nigerian basketball?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Nigerian basketball can do a lot better, and I am saying this here because there is a whole lot of fighting and disagreement. There is so much more that can be done, and the people playing the sport are not benefiting as much as they need to. They need to do better because basketball is one way to have the youth engaged, and it is not just about basketball; it is sports in general.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0You have spoken about the challenges facing basketball. Do you have a vision for how you can contribute to changing things?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0I am already doing a lot. A lot of my friends come and host camps, and we try to make them as accessible as possible. I feel like the private sector wants to do a lot, but there must be great synergy with the government. The government has to give the necessary backing, and these are things that can change the game. For many people in basketball, the question on their lips is, how lucrative can it be? Because they want to play. Most of them don\u2019t even have shoes.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Aside from basketball, what other sports did you participate in growing up?\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0I played football, which is like a Nigerian thing. I also played table tennis, and I was really engaged in sports, but basketball stole me away from all of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-BBNaija housemate Hermes Iyele has remained closely connected to basketball despite his success in the entertainment industry. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12919],"tags":[42139,42140,42141,42142,711,4953,42143,4675,42144,42145,42146,42147,42148,42149],"class_list":["post-68418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hermes","tag-basketball-dream","tag-basketball-nigeria","tag-bbnaija","tag-entertainment-industry","tag-entertainment-news","tag-hermes","tag-hermes-iyele","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba-africa","tag-nigerian-basketball","tag-nigerian-youth-sports","tag-sports-in-nigeria","tag-sports-scholarship","tag-visa-denial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}