"I DIDN'T believe it when I heard my name called. I still can't believe it," Ater Majok admitted yesterday. "I'm still in a dream."
It's been almost a month since the young giant from Blacktown in western Sydney was picked by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA draft and Majok is still reeling.
He's not the only one. Very few pundits in Australia or elsewhere figured he had a chance of being drafted this year - or any other year. Shows how little they know.
At 211cm, or 6ft 11in with a 7ft 5in wingspan - the world of hoops persists in using imperial measurements - Majok has been typecast as a centre in Australia and in Europe even though he believed, and kept telling anyone who'd listen, he was really a small forward best suited to playing the three spot.
Finally someone listened. It happened to be the Lakers, one of the most famous and successful franchises in the history of pro ball.
It's Jack Nicholson's team and the club where Kareem Abdul Jabar, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have won NBA championships.
Having been overlooked by the Sydney Kings, Majok, 24, is now working out in LA.
"I look at myself as a mismatched forward," Majok said. "If you put a smaller guy against me I can change his shot or block it and if I'm up against bigger guys I can take them off the bounce (dribble).
"I'm between a small forward and a power forward, and that's what the Lakers drafted me as."
Majok so impressed Lakers scouts at a European NBA trial in Treviso, Italy, that they brought him to LA for a private workout where he wowed them again with his length and athleticism.
But things did not start well.
"The first day at the Euro camp they put me on a team at No. 5 (centre) and I didn't do too good. I got hit in the eye and couldn't see," Majok told The Daily Telegraph.
"The next day I switched teams and I ended up playing the three. I guarded one of the top small forwards from Europe. I held him down to 10 points or something ridiculous and I knocked down a couple of threes and a jump shot.
"That's when the Lakers became interested.
Majok came to Australia as a refugee from Sudan's civil war and with coaching from Edward Smith he became the inspiration of the Sudanese community which, in NSW, numbers more than 150,000.
It's been almost a month since the young giant from Blacktown in western Sydney was picked by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA draft and Majok is still reeling.
He's not the only one. Very few pundits in Australia or elsewhere figured he had a chance of being drafted this year - or any other year. Shows how little they know.
At 211cm, or 6ft 11in with a 7ft 5in wingspan - the world of hoops persists in using imperial measurements - Majok has been typecast as a centre in Australia and in Europe even though he believed, and kept telling anyone who'd listen, he was really a small forward best suited to playing the three spot.
Finally someone listened. It happened to be the Lakers, one of the most famous and successful franchises in the history of pro ball.
It's Jack Nicholson's team and the club where Kareem Abdul Jabar, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have won NBA championships.
Having been overlooked by the Sydney Kings, Majok, 24, is now working out in LA.
"I look at myself as a mismatched forward," Majok said. "If you put a smaller guy against me I can change his shot or block it and if I'm up against bigger guys I can take them off the bounce (dribble).
"I'm between a small forward and a power forward, and that's what the Lakers drafted me as."
Majok so impressed Lakers scouts at a European NBA trial in Treviso, Italy, that they brought him to LA for a private workout where he wowed them again with his length and athleticism.
But things did not start well.
"The first day at the Euro camp they put me on a team at No. 5 (centre) and I didn't do too good. I got hit in the eye and couldn't see," Majok told The Daily Telegraph.
"The next day I switched teams and I ended up playing the three. I guarded one of the top small forwards from Europe. I held him down to 10 points or something ridiculous and I knocked down a couple of threes and a jump shot.
"That's when the Lakers became interested.
Majok came to Australia as a refugee from Sudan's civil war and with coaching from Edward Smith he became the inspiration of the Sudanese community which, in NSW, numbers more than 150,000.
