New Clipper Olowokandi Has Already Sailed World

Michael Olowokandi plays his first game with the Clippers tonight, and it’s a debut in every sense of the word.

This isn’t merely his first NBA appearance. Most of the people watching will be seeing him play for the first time.

That simply does not happen in this cable-ready, satellite-hookup world. Not for the first player selected in the NBA draft, at least.

Get ready to depart from the norm. The Nigerian-born, England-raised, 7-foot basketball neophyte may be the unlikeliest No. 1 draft choice in the history of the NBA.

Then again, he may be exactly what this league needs.

With so many veterans claiming the youngsters are only in it for the money, along comes a guy who loved basketball so much he moved from England to California just to learn the proper way to play.

You don’t have to worry about his posse leading him astray. One buddy isn’t enough to qualify as a posse. And besides, that guy is busy studying computer science at USC.

You don’t have to worry about Olowokandi getting arrested for drunk driving any time soon; he doesn’t have a driver’s license.

He doesn’t dye his hair. He keeps it short, sometimes cutting it himself.

That will all come as welcome relief to the people in the league offices on Fifth Avenue in New York, and might even appeal to people on Madison Avenue as well.

But the teams don’t care if a guy is prone to choking a coach or skipping practices. If he has skills, if he can play, he’ll find a place in the league.

That’s why there’s an element of mystery to Olowokandi. Can he play? Not only play, but can this guy--who played in his first organized basketball game in 1995 and spent only one year as a full-time, scholarship starter--play at a level worthy of the No. 1 pick?

Olowokandi says, “I did not come all the way out here, I did not leave home and leave everything, to come out here and be unsuccessful.”

Olowokandi’s father was a Nigerian diplomat, and the family moved to London when Michael was 3. The tale of how he came to the Clippers could be the NBA global marketing strategy’s greatest success story.

After playing “everything but basketball” as a youth, he became exposed to the NBA through Michael Jordan highlight videos.

“He’s a joy to watch,” Olowokandi said. “You see him do things and you want to do the same thing. So you go out and you start trying. That’s where the curiosity began. I just kept trying it.”

Initially, what he and his friends did barely qualified as basketball.

“We just messed around,” he said. “No rules. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing. We had a ball in our hands, and our main objective was to try to get the ball in the net. Everything else in between was irrelevant, whether we traveled, whether they traveled. We just tried to find a way.”

Something about the sport got him hooked.

“It’s a fun game,” he said. “You have a lot of ways to express yourself. You’re not limited. It’s not like in track, where you could only run as fast as you could and jump--you can only work on your technique. In basketball, you can do so many things. It’s a joy.”

He also knew that if he wanted to get better, if he wanted to learn the right way to play and face the top competition, he had to leave England.

Those who know anything about Olowokandi have heard what happened next. He went to the library, found a guide to American colleges and opened it up to the “P” section. He saw Pacific and called the school, where an assistant coach happened to be manning the phones while the receptionist was at lunch. Both parties had something to offer: Pacific a basketball program, Olowokandi a 7-foot body.

Olowokandi had attended Newlands Manor boarding school since he was 8, so he was used to being away from his family.

“I had a mind of my own,” he said. “I was independent. When I decided to come to the States, it was a continuation of what I had done before. [My parents] understood that.”

Pacific didn’t have a scholarship available. That didn’t discourage him. He had paid to attend Brunell University in Middlesex, England, the previous two years, so he was ready to pay at his next school.

When Pacific Coach Bob Thomason first saw Olowokandi with a basketball in his hands, he sure didn’t think he was looking at a future top NBA draft choice.

“I didn’t even know if we were looking at a good college player,” Thomason said. “He had a good body. He wasn’t as big as he is now, strength-wise. His skill level was raw in everything he did.”

He didn’t know he should follow up his shot. After a few trips up and down the court during pickup games, he would start walking. He wasn’t in basketball shape and he didn’t know the intensity doesn’t drop off.

There were several games his first season when he didn’t get off the bench. But he did not get discouraged.

“He should have, but he never did,” said Henry Audu, Olowokandi’s friend from Newlands Manor who moved to Los Angeles to attend USC last year. “Before he left England, a lot of people told him, ‘You can’t make it. The people in America have been playing basketball longer than you.’ A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste your time.’ But he wasn’t discouraged at all.”

Olowokandi knew his personal history.

“If I really put my mind to it, I’ve always been successful,” he said.

When he competed in track and field, he long-jumped more than 23 feet and triple-jumped more than 52 1/2 feet. He got a volleyball team together a month before a national tournament and won the whole thing. And he always did well in school.

“As long as I dedicate myself to something,” Olowokandi said. “I think that’s with everybody. If you put your mind to something and you do it for a good reason, that drive is going to be there and you will be successful.”

When bad things happen, he isn’t easily deterred.

“What I like is, he’s so resilient,” said Clipper point guard Darrick Martin, who has been driving Olowokandi to and from practice. “If he gets his shot blocked, he just gets the ball back and goes up again.”

For Olowokandi, progress always came quickly. He’s a good listener and a quick learner, say those who have been around him.

By the end of his first season, he was averaging 14 minutes a game. In his second season--while still technically a walk-on because there were no scholarships available--he averaged 10.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks, but a knee injury limited him to 19 games. As a senior he averaged 22.2 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.9 blocks and was named the Big West Conference player of the year.

One question that arises for a guy who didn’t grow up playing pickup games for the right to stay on the court, or constantly facing the top competition in high school summer camps, is his competitiveness.

That was Thomason’s biggest concern as well.

In one game during Olowokandi’s sophomore year, he blocked three consecutive shots but was called for a foul on the third. He slammed the ball in disgust and got a technical foul.

Thomason took him out of the game but didn’t yell at him. He walked over, gave him five and said, “You’ve arrived.”

By his senior year, “He was so competitive in practice, I had to calm him down so he wouldn’t tear people’s heads off,” Thomason said.

So he’s got that going for him as well. But those who didn’t catch one of Pacific’s four ESPN games last season and weren’t among the 2,000 at the Clippers’ open scrimmage on Tuesday, might be wondering if that’s all enough to make him a No. 1 pick.

His footwork is dazzling for a man his size. He goes after shots and rebounds with equal ferocity. If there’s one thing missing from his game, it’s shooting accuracy.

Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor went through a long list of Olowokandi’s attributes: his athletic ability, his size, his long arms, his work ethic, his character, his intelligence. . . .

“And he’s a center,” Baylor said. “In this league, the two toughest things to get are a point guard and a talented center.”

As long as you’re 7 feet and can demonstrate an ability to walk without constantly tripping, teams are willing to take chances on you, which might explain why Benoit Benjamin is still in the league.

In this case, Olowokandi also benefited from a weak crop of players in the draft. There was no clear-cut No. 1, not like Tim Duncan in the previous draft, and when in doubt NBA general managers tend to go with size.

There’s every reason to harbor doubts. Then again, he has made it this far, hasn’t he?

“Look where he’s come from,” Thomason said. “Where is he going to go? That will be the journey everybody finds out.”

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com

*

DOUGLAS SIGNS

The Clippers signed veteran guard Sherman Douglas, and he might play tonight. Page 8