After standing out at the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season with Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers, forward Devine Eke has joined the Milwaukee Bucks for NBA Summer League.

Eke, who is Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike’s cousin, averaged a double-double at 16.6 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in a Rivers Hoopers team which stunned the African basketball community when they finished third – an incredible return for the first Nigerian team to ever make it to the knockout rounds.

“I heard great things about the Bucks and the people at the organization. [My goal for Summer League] is just trying to contribute to my team winning,” Eke, who was in the All-BAL Second Team, told ESPN about choosing the Bucks, even when he had interest from other teams.

One of them was the Dallas Mavericks – an opportunity which he believes he earned through his relationship with Ian Mahinmi – a former 2011 NBA champion with the Mavs. Mahinmi is an NBA Africa investor and Eke said he was impressed enough by his performances to advise his former team to give him a chance.

“IThe BAL is an amazing platform and I met a lot of amazing people and Ian Mahinmi, that works in the BAL and is a former NBA player and everything, kind of is a mentor to me since the BAL,” Eke explained.

No former BAL player has played a regular season NBA game yet, with Cameroon’s Ulrich Chomche likely to be the first after he was drafted by the Toronto Raptors recently.

This year, Eke will be joined by Samkelo Cele in the Summer League. The South African small forward was invited by the New York Knicks off the back of his BAL heroics for the Cape Town Tigers.

While several NBA teams have kept an eye on proceedings at the BAL, the Bucks have been one of the most connected with the league, hiring scouting coordinator Ijeoma Ofomata from the BAL. This year, another Bucks scout, Dzaflo Larkai, was on the ground at the tournament.

As well as Mahinmi, Eke is equally grateful to the Ogwumike sisters, who advised him to play in the BAL to begin with. Although they are his cousins, he considers them to be his big sisters and mentors.

“Those are my sisters, man. I wouldn’t even pronounce them as my cousins honestly, but technically they’re my cousins. We have a really good relationship. They mentor me; they give me really good advice,” Eke said.

“Those are my mother’s brother’s daughters. It was a good conversation. They’ve played at the highest level, so they know what’s best. It was a good conversation with them in terms of playing in this league.”

The 27-year-old, who played college basketball at the Maine Black Bears, Rider Broncs and Radford Highlanders, has played in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Bosnia prior to his BAL experience, also featuring for the Nigeria national team.

Egypt’s Anas Mahmoud (Toronto Raptors), the Central African Republic’s Evans Ganapamo, and Mali’s Aliou Diarra (both Milwaukee Bucks) have previously featured on NBA Summer League rosters.

The likes of South Sudan’s Mayan Kiir, Senegal’s Babacar Sané and the Central African Republic’s Thierry Darlan have secured opportunities in the G League off the back of impressive BAL seasons, with varying degrees of success.

Senegal’s Ibou Badji (Portland Trail Blazers) became the first NBA Academy Africa alum to feature in the NBA regular season but has not played in the BAL.

Eke’s Bucks will face the Chicago Bulls on July 13 in their first NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas before facing off with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers and Phoenix Suns over the next six days.

LAS VEGAS — Fresh off winning an NBA title and signing a record contract extension over the weekend, Jayson Tatum arrived in Sin City for his first Team USA training camp practice Monday with a fresh haircut and feeling like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

“A hundred percent,” Tatum said, shortly after participating in his first practice here after being excused from the opening two days of preparation for the Paris Olympic Games. “Just being at the topic of discussion of so many debates or whatever it is … ‘Can he lead a team? Is he a top-five player?’

“There’s still a lot of things I guess they can debate. But now I’ve done something that they can’t debate: I’ve won a championship. Having that under my belt, like obviously it’s still conversations to be had or whatever people want to say, but they always got to refer to me as an NBA champion.”

There’s no arguing that, after Tatum and the Celtics followed up leading the NBA with 64 regular-season victories by going 16-3 in the postseason — second only to the 16-1 mark by the 2017 Golden State Warriors in terms of playoff winning percentage since the league went to four seven-game rounds in the playoffs.

Tatum said the championship parade last month was “the best two hours of my life” and that it was hard to explain how “insane” the atmosphere and energy were in the city that day as Boston reveled in passing its forever rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, to become the NBA leader with 18 championships.

But if anyone was thinking that the Celtics — specifically, coach Joe Mazzulla — would be relaxing after winning that first championship, Tatum made it clear that wouldn’t be happening.

“Joe is already trying to draw up s— for next season,” Tatum said with a smile. “And I was like, ‘Joe, f— that. We just won a championship. Enjoy it. Relax.’

“Like, I’m not worried about any sets that he’s trying to put in right now. We had a laugh about it, because he’s just so driven — which we all are, but it’s like, man, we worked so hard for this. So we got to enjoy it.”

Tatum is also enjoying Boston’s remarkable level of roster continuity heading into next season. The team has already re-signed centers Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman in free agency and inked both Tatum and All-Defensive Team guard Derrick White to long-term contract extensions.

As of now, Boston has retained 13 of 15 players from its championship-winning roster, with Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk being replaced by first-round pick Baylor Scheierman. Nobody is happier about that than Tatum, who said he hoped everyone would be back from last season’s team, citing how much team chemistry helped the Celtics.

“We had a hell of a team,” Tatum said. “Obviously the guys that did play, but the guys in our ‘stay ready’ group are extremely talented whenever we called upon them. I think the camaraderie that we had was such a close-knit team that we all got along really, really well.

“I didn’t really want any changes. I thought we had a really, really good team on all fronts.”

One place where Boston will have a change, however, is in its ownership group. Controlling owner Wyc Grousbeck announced a week ago that he and his family would be selling their controlling stake in the franchise. It was a move that came out of the blue to practically everyone — including Tatum himself, who admitted he didn’t know it was coming.