Like Ben Uzoh, Pro Basketball Player Promise Amukamara Is Making Nigeria Proud

To hear my name get called at the WNBA draft was kind of a dream come true that I never thought could happen. OR It was a great honor to represent them and I know it also made my family proud.

Promise Amukamara

Professional Basketball Player

Charnay BB & The Nigerian National Team

My main role as a professional athlete on both of my teams, Charnay & the Nigerian National Team is obviously to win. I’m both a point guard and a shooting guard on those respective teams so, leadership is a very important part of my role as well.

A typical day for me starts by waking up and eating breakfast to fuel my upcoming workout. After I’ve finished training for the day, I work on some business ventures that I am pursuing after my sports career. Once I have done my routine activities, I relax. I just pretty much watch Netflix and connect with friends and family.

Your older brother Prince is also a professional athlete. Was he your main inspiration to pursue basketball as a career or was playing at the highest level always your dream as a kid?

There’s no doubt that my brother was a huge inspiration for me and he did influence my sports career and also my life. But, I never considered playing professional basketball a possibility for me until my senior year at Arizona State.

I never really thought that was an option for me. My senior year was when I realized I had the ability to take my talent to the next level.

After an impressive college career at Arizona State, in 2015, you were picked by Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA draft! What was the experience of being drafted like?

Being drafted was the most amazing experience! To be able to hear my name get called at the WNBA draft was an absolute dream come true. I never thought that that could happen.

I felt like a superstar!

I received and incredible amount of support in form of text messages, Instagram posts, Twitter posts and Facebook posts. It really felt amazing to have all of that love being shown.

In August 2019, you won the Gold Medal with Nigeria in the African Championship! What was it like to not only have the honor of representing Nigeria but also winning them a gold medal?

Yes, that was an unbelievable experience! It was my very first time ever winning a championship with the Nigerian National Team. It was a great honor to represent Nigeria and what also meant a lot to me was that I know that my contribution to that gold medal also made my family very proud.

Last year, the Basketball Africa League was founded as a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA with sponsorship from Nike, Jordan Brand and Pepsi. How has/will this affect basketball culture in Africa? Do you think that they will expand the WNBA to Africa as well?

I think Africa is becoming more and more respected as a top contender in all sports. There are a lot of talented African athletes all around the world and to finally receive the credit and notoriety is great to see. I think the collaboration betweenthe NBA and FIBA in Africa will change the game and I think we will all see a lot of rising stars in Africa. I’m not sure if they will expand the WNBA into Africa because they still need to develop more teams here in the United States however, I don’t think it would be a bad idea if they did.