William Njoku
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William (Will) Njoku (born March 5, 1972 in Accra, Ghana) is a professional basketball player and member of the Canada national men's basketball team.
A 6'9½ Nigerian-Canadian, Njoku immigrated to Canada as a four year-old along with his parents Lawrence and Catherine. He starred for Halifax West High School despite missing most of his senior year through injury. The Warriors consequently did not reach the provincial championship finals tournament in 1990. Will attended hometown St. Mary's University, Halifax, where in his junior year (1993) he was winner of the Mike Mosher Award as the CIAU's Most Outstanding player. In his junior and senior seasons he was also named a CIAU All-Canadian. Njoku was drafted in the second round of the 1994 NBA draft with the 41st pick overall by the Indiana Pacers.
Failing to make any NBA regular season roster however, Njoku played professionally for the next ten years for various clubs in Europe. He retired in 1999 due to a chronic back ailment, one which was properly diagnosed and successfully treated allowing him to make a comeback to pro ball at age 31 in 2003. This is a mostly complete list of the clubs by year:
- Jersey Turnpikes, USBL, 1995
- Atlantic City Seagulls, USBL, 1996
- Alba Berlin, Germany, autumn of 1996
- Besiktas, Turkey, 1997
- Illianbum Taka, Portugal, 1998
- Oliveirense, Portugal, 1999
- QMI Bashkimi, Serbia and Montenegro (Kosovo), 2003
- Eurolines Vilvoorde, Belgium, 2003-4
- F. Rabotnicki, Republic of Macedonia, 2004
Njoku also played in France.
Njoku was a member of the Canadian team at the 1994 FIBA World Championship as well as the 1998 Championship. In 2007 he also played for the Canadian national developmental team in a tournament in Argentina.
Since retiring from playing pro basketball, Njoku has been involved in coaching and motivational speaking. He resides in Moncton, NB. He is currently the Athletics Director at Atlantic Baptist University.
[edit] Sources
- www.eurobasket.com
- www.basket-stats.info
- www.thedraftreview.com
- www.turkishdailynew.com.tr
- www.espndeportes.espn.go.com
- curtisjphillips.tripod.com
- www.berlinonline.de
- www.b-all.be
- www.will2win.ca
[edit] External link
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