SPOKANE, Wash. – For some people, Hoopfest is just about having fun. As long as you show up and get to play, it doesn’t matter the outcome. But to others, it means a little bit more.
Organ Mbabazi grew up 8,725 miles away from Spokane in Kigali, Rwanda. He lived there for the first 20 years of his life.
That’s where he became the 17th-ranked player in the country while he was in high school. Mbabazi came to Spokane because he knew the competition would be better for his development, and he wanted to play professionally. What better place than Hooptown USA?
Once he got here, he found a trainer and worked hard to better his skills. He was one of the best shooters in his country, but his dribbling needed work.
Mbabazi enrolled at Spokane Community College (SCC) in hopes of playing on the basketball team, but his injuries kept him off the court. The most significant injury was his torn calf, but he also had a strained patellar tendon.
It got to the point where, in October of last year, his doctor told him he should never play basketball again, or there was a real chance he would be paralyzed.
This news broke Mbabazi’s heart. This was all he wanted. This was his dream. Below, you can see the heartbroken text that he sent to his trainer when he got the news.
It was after he hit rock bottom that Mbabazi realized he could not give up chasing his dream.
“My failure doesn’t make me feel like I’m done,” said Mbabazi. “It makes me more encouraged to do something…”
Just last week, Organ graduated from SCC with his associate degree, and thanks to some incredible rehab work and spending every day in the gym, he is now hoping to use Hoopfest as an opportunity to see where his skills are against strong competition.
His goal is to earn his way onto a Juco roster where he can develop his game to one day return to play professionally in Rwanda.
