The Los Angeles Lakers used their first-round draft choice to select a relative unknown: 7-foot, 90lb. Max B, an impoverished taro and cassava farmer from Somalia.
“Yeah, he’ll probably have to deal with guarding guys who are maybe two, three times heavier,” Phil Jackson admitted to a crowd of reporters outside Staples Center. “But the hope is that with adequate nutrition, he’ll gain some additional size.”
Jackson added that the Lakers chief dietitian would be working with Max to ensure maximum intake of protein and carbs.
“As soon as we get this guy over malaria, you’re gonna see him out there, and you’re gonna see what this guy can do.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Max conveyed gratitude for the Lakers organization for bringing him to the United States. He added that his father was killed when he was four, he had joined the resistance, and spent his adolescence fighting the militia with a machete. At the age of 27 he had retired to a quiet life in the village, until a talent scout made an unexpected stop.
“For me, every day was about survival. I got used to watching out for enemies. Many times I would go for days with nothing to eat, until I found some vultures or hyenas. Praise be to Allah for delivering me to this place.”
But some analysts were less sanguine about Max’s prospects in the NBA. “This guy just cannot size up,” Chris Berman said on ESPN. “They’re gonna push him all over the court, I mean really abuse this guy!”
“I’m worried about this from a health standpoint,” his co-anchor said. “The last thing we need is another Magic Johnson.”