All you need to know about Ochai Agbaji, the newest Nigerian in the NBA

"With the 14th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select…Ochai Agbaji, from the University of Kansas" were the words of NBA commissioner, Adam Silver.

Those words were met with a celebration at Barclays Centre and confirmed that Nigeria will have a fresh new representative in the NBA, the highest level of basketball in the world.

22-year-old shooting guard, Ochai Agbaji was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers after a dominant performance to help Kansas win the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

Beyond all the aforementioned facts, there are quite a number of interesting things to note about this young man which will now be explored below.

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Not that his name doesn't give it up already but Ochai Agbaji has Nigerian roots which stem from his father, Olofu who moved to the United States as a 17-year-old according to Wikipedia. 

Ochai himself is proud of his roots as his official Twitter handle indicates: @younchoch displays an emoji of the Nigerian flag which bears the hope of a potential D'Tiger in the making.

If you needed more proof of Ochai's Nigerian roots, the fact that he started off playing football should confirm that because Nigerians and football are inseparable.

Ochai grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and was encouraged by his father to play football as a youngster which he did up until his high school years.

He quit football to focus on basketball as a sophomore at Oak Park High School after he experienced a growth spurt, increasing in height by nine inches.

Ochai Agbaji led his college team, the Kansas City Jayhawks to the National Championship title with an all-time performance in the final four.

Ochai Agbaji kicked into a new gear in the final 3 games of the NCAA tournament and dragged his team to the championship when the lights shined brightest.

Agbaji scored 17 PPG on 62% shooting from the field, including 69% from deep, in the Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship to guide the Jayhawks to the title.

It is this quality that prompted the Cleveland Cavaliers to use their first-round pick on him and he is expected to be an impactful player for them in the coming season.