Ejim Dreams Olympic Action

While local basketball stars Royce White and Harrison Barnes wait for their shot at the NBA, Iowa State University Basketball Forward Melvin Ejim hopes to realise his childhood dream: playing basketball in the Olympics.

White, also of the Iowa State University Cyclones, and Barnes, an Ames High School graduate who played for the Tar Heels, both announced their intent to go pro earlier this year. They await the NBA Draft 28 June.

But Ejim, who will be a junior next fall, leaves Wednesday to tryout for the 2012 Nigerian National Team, according to a report in the Globe Gazette. The Nigerian team, D’Tigers, hope to qualify for the Olympic Games that begin in London on 28 July.

The Olympic Qualifying tournament starts 30 June in Venezuela. Ejim’s parents emigrated from Nigeria to Canada before he was born, according to the Globe Gazette report.

Ejim told the Globe Gazette: “It has always been a dream of mine to play in the Olympics,” Ejim said. “The Nigerian coaches contacted me and suggested I go through the tryouts. I am really looking forward to it.”

If Ejim and the team make it to the Olympic Games in London, Ejim could be playing with three NBA players: Al-Farouk Aminu of the New Orleans Hornets and Ben Uzoh and Makafan Solomon Alabi of the Toronto Raptors, the Globe Gazette reported.

And if Ejim doesn’t make it this year, he said there is still hope that he could make the Olympic team four years from now, he told the Des Moines Register.