Fun is heard in the background. The screams, the jokes, the laughter from a locker room after a training session. “Sorry Usman, could you move, I can’t hear you at all.” It is the rumor of that good vibes that is so rarely perceived, because it remains indoors. That which La Familia has and that Usman Garuba, the youngest to arrive in a long time, assimilates with those eyes so wide with which he conquers the top at breakneck speed.
At the age of 19, some golden juniors had not yet reached the absolute. TO Pau Gasol It cost him a setback in Sydney 2000 and it was not until he was 21, at the European Championship in Turkey, when he made his official debut. The conquest that Usman can be equated by precocity to that achieved by Ricky Rubio: played the Beijing Games with 17, only Juan Antonio Corbalan Y Carlos Sevillano they were released younger. Or with Rudy fernandez, in the Games of Athens also before the 20.
“All good around here, happy and eager, really. Very comfortable, it is a source of pride,” receives the Real Madrid player. “It is still difficult for him to let go,” they say from their environment. And the telephone interview carried out with EL MUNDO, one of the few that has conceded this phenomenon attests, that in a few days it will know its fate in the NBA, candidate for the noble positions of the draft. But, in the middle of the conversation interrupted several times by the frenzy in the dressing room, there is a topic that Usman breaks with and only the time agreed for the talk interrupts him.
“They wanted another way of life”
They are its origins. It is his family. Your engine. “All my effort is a way to return to my parents their sacrifice for us when we left Africa. I have in my mind every day to return it, because they have made a lot of effort for me,” he proclaims, about that vital trip, that departure from Nigeria. for almost three decades now in search of the promise of a better future. “I am not entirely aware of the effort they made to get me to where I am, sharing a dressing room with these people. They have worked a lot, they have sacrificed a lot in their lives. I want to help them at all times,” insists Usman, who until this year While awaiting his transfer to the US, he has continued to live in the Azuqueca de Henares family home.
Betty Y Mustapha They left Benin City, escaping from difficulties, looking for a future for that family they were going to form. “They have told me many times how they left Africa. My parents lived in Nigeria and at that time, things were not very good,” says Garuba. “They didn’t have too many problems there, they could have stayed for a lifetime, what happens is that they wanted to find a different way of life. Especially my mother. They traveled to Europe, first to Belgium and then to Spain, because some relatives and acquaintances were here. That was the thing, “he explains, now yes, with a fluency consistent with the maturity he has been showing since he made his debut at Real Madrid at the age of 16. “Yes, yes, many people tell me that I look older than I am,” he laughs.
It was difficult for the Garuba Alari family to settle in Madrid. Nothing was easy. They first lived in Villaverde, until the father found work in the Bimbo factory in Azuqueca, where they moved and still live, although Mustapha had to leave his job and not only because of Usman’s success: he has a disability pension due to problems respiratory It was in that town of Guadalajara that he discovered him Dave Serrano when he wanted to try soccer. His little sister still plays there Uki -another promise, like Seddik, Junior European champion with Madrid a few weeks ago-, to which, since Usman has a driving license, he takes and brings to his training sessions.
Garuba feels Spain, but does not lose sight of Nigeria. A few days ago he celebrated on social networks, for example, the triumph of the African team over the USA Team. “Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to travel there. I have started with the national teams from a very young age and it has occupied me many summers, because then the preseason arrived. I did not have time. I would love to go, I wanted to have gone this summer, but … To see all my family, my grandparents, my uncles … “, Usman dreams of visiting the cities where his relatives reside.
But it will not be easy. Your calendar is missing dates. He’s been like this since he was a child. “It is that he has been a professional since he was 13 years old”, they claim from their surroundings of that frenzy, another plus that differentiates him from the competition in the draft. Because Usman has it clear. The NBA is your destiny. It is also almost his obsession: his great hobby is watching one game after another in the League Pass.
Garuba is stubborn, a virtue that when mishandled can be a defect. And defeat does not fit too well. For this reason, in recent months he has worked with a coach with a single objective: to improve frustration. After the Cup final, when Laso used him as an emergency resource to defend the rival base, he ended up broken in tears. Although it continues to affect him, the failure in the ACB final, collective and personal failures, has been much better: “He is rapidly evolving in the ability to forget the error to think about the next play.”
I have respect for everyone, but if there are blows, they ask for forgiveness and that’s it.
Those who know him best also say that the naturalness with which he faces his achievements cannot be anything other than the result of his age. Innocence that joins his ambition. “He only wants to give himself the host. He does not care who is in front. He hates losing, it burns him,” they say. “There is a lot of competition from day one, I like that. I have respect for everyone, but if there are blows, forgiveness is asked and that’s it,” he says, impressed and grateful for this whim of fate. Because it is illogical that he was able to share a wardrobe with legends such as Felipe Reyes at Real Madrid or now Pau Gasol in the national team, who had already debuted before he was born.
“It is a great opportunity that life is giving me, to learn from them. Enjoy it. I value it now, but I suppose that later, in a few years, even more,” he admits.
- What strikes you about training with the Gasol brothers?
- First of all, they are very big physically. And that they are great. But also communication, both verbal and gestural. That is what has surprised me the most, how they care about their teammates. They are always on top of me.
- Would you have imagined playing next to Pau?
- I had posters of him in my room. From him and Kobe, from when they won both rings with the Lakers.
- Were they your idols?
- Yes, although I have not had any in particular, I have noticed a lot of people. And I still do it daily. I learn from everyone.
- What is your first memory of the national team?
- Let me remember well … Could the World Cup in Turkey be [2010, Usman tenía ocho años]? I saw it on the news, they lost to Serbia, something happened at the last minute. From there I started to get more hooked. I realized what that team was. Then when I got to watch real games, full time, it was at the 2012 Games.
- Pau, Marc, Rudy, Llull and Claver still continue since then …
- Yes, haha. There are a few left here, joer.
- Do you feel vertigo with everything that is happening to you?
- Yes, everything goes very fast. Many good things have happened to me in a short time, but I am prepared for everything, for the good and for the bad. Not everything can always go well, things can go wrong and it is normal. Because nothing in this life is perfect. I am aware that I can sometimes go wrong. That is why you have to be mentally prepared, it is what matters most.
- From whom have you learned this maturity?
- It is the fruit of the work of many people. My environment, the wardrobe, my family, friends … I always try to be honest. Look in the mirror and say: ‘I am me, I am like that’. And that nothing and nobody changes me. I live day to day.
- Your parents will hallucinate …
- Everything is incredible, but more than hallucinating with what is happening to me, my parents always insist that I be myself. Especially my mother. He knows that I enjoy it, that I live it, compete, be here … but he tells me to be myself despite everything. Always always. Whatever happens, nothing changes me.
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