LEGENDSUG: HAKEEM THE KING OF STREETBALL

Speaking for hoops junkies in Uganda, Hakeem ‘ILL‘ Iga is a legend and a true trailblazer. You see, for so many (including myself) who started hanging around Ugandan basketball as teenagers, he was the ultimate inspiration to pick up a basketball and burst out some moves – Hakeem made basketball cool for all of us who had had soccer as our first sport. And if I’m to be brutally honest, he set in motion the kind of events and inspiration that would later yield this network – Basketball256.

In his devotion, I see myself – a teenager running around with a small LUMIX digital camera, recording Hakeem’s workouts and practicing some of his moves and later running to a desktop computer at my grandma’s house to try out video editing. In my senior six vacation, I would learn HTML just to learn how to build webpages. With my HTML skills I would build the website Streetball256.com – Uganda’s premier website featuring content strictly on Ugandan basketball. Streetball256 would evolve into Basketball256. Usually, before i get behind the laptop to write out most of these articles, I call a few of my basketball geng geng and together we put these conversations in perspective. Ben Komakech proposed I should put myself on the stand for this one but I insisted I shall not. In a nutshell, Hakeem stirred up an undeniable passion for basketball within me – with it a desire to document the game through writing, photography and videography. With internet technologies on the up, i found myself studying Computer Science as a means to tell our basketball stories better. How coincidental in myself to find just another inspired by Hakeem!

Hakeem went mostly by two Streetball aliases, ILL and ADDICTED. Keem as those that interacted with him a lot call him narrates that he got the nickname ILL (ill with It) because he was suffering from basketball and he was beyond sick with the moves. Similarly, his other nickname ADDICTED came from him being addicted to the game of basketball. In the early 2000s while at Makerere University, Keem told me that students would be returning from the bars at 6:00 AM in the morning and they would find him already on court. That’s how addicted and committed he was to the improvement of his craft. Keem took basketball ‘from the basketball court to the stage’ , he oversaw the creation of a new basketball culture and with it a wave of new fans of the game that had been untapped.

Keem says he was first introduced to basketball in 1994 on joining Tororo College in Eastern Uganda. He had taken his first dribbles in S.1 but he would be drafted on the school team the next year. He grew very fond of the game and he’d continually seek to improve. At the end of his four years at Tororo College, Keem would join Jinja S.S for his A-levels and that’s how he gets drafted to the Jinja based 2002 League Champions – Sky Jammers. Keem was joining the cast of the young brothers Norman and Donald Blick, Swaib Ssemakula, Beste, Mark Kasadha and Mugisha Justus among others.

“In the early 2000s, passion was the only currency of the game. Jammers is what I would call a hustle team – we would come from Jinja when we were just four players and we would have to draft a fifth player from the YMCA. Sometimes guys had no shoes and they had to borrow from a fan. Man, It was just passion.” – Hakeem

Hakeem told me how hard it was to play basketball in those days. Basketball seemed like a game played by guys from ‘good families’. Of course you can imagine how hard it was to get access to things like good basketball shoes and basketballs themselves. It’s not far-fetched, that seemingliness of basketball to a rich kids game. I asked Keem why they endured those hardships to compete and he told me;

“Of course the passion was too much, but if you ask many guys that put in effort around that time, we were looking for scholarships to go to College in the U.S. Sprite (a brand of the Coca-Cola Company) was so active in hooking up guys with scholarships to College. Scouts would come to watch games and remember, guys like Dikembe Mutombo had been drafted to the NBA seven years ahead of us. The dream of the NBA was very alive .” – Hakeem

Hearing this made me comprehend why players from that generation developed such a work ethic and a natural commitment to the game. They set their eyes on the ultimate ambition – to play at the world’s biggest basketball stage, the NBA. Whether that worked out or not does not devoid the effort from the attempt.
“Somehow fans jumped to Sky Jammers because we were always the underdogs. They just wanted to see the two brothers (Norman and Donald Blick) win. At that time, Dona and Norman had such a stunning resemblance”, Hakeem told me of Sky Jammers. He continued that Norman, Donald , Swaib Ssemakula and himself had been the core of the team. “When the four of us were on the floor, we were tricky to stop”. keem told me that basketball those days was a bit rough –many fouls always went uncalled. We played basketball that had so many set plays unlike these days where I see guys running a lot. We had so many set plays but guys had a lot of skill too.

The undisputed consensus is that Hakeem was and still is the slickest hands by any Ugandan to ever dribble the basketball. Call him Uganda’s Kyrie Irving. But why would the best point guard at the time just simply walk away from the league to pursue streetball for the remainder of his basketball career?

What I know about him; he only played for Sky jammers and was part of the team that won the national league. I am yet to see anyone in uganda that handles the ball like him….The And1 team can testify – Wanyama Ibra (long time Ugandan basketball fan)

He just moved out of the league and started playing his passion!! Hakeem’s ball handles grew, so did his love for And 1 basketball. He was just unstoppable!!! – Jackson Kikonyogo (former Falcons BC)

Among my 3 musketeers with Oluka Tony and Ivan Enabu. Whenever any one of them had the ball, someone was inevitably anointed to take one or two crossovers for the team and fans at large. And the crowd plauding them on always got them going. A menace to opposition players -Rogers Odiama- Entebbe Basketball legend

Played together in three different teams; Sky jammers,Makerere university team and Nkrumah hall in inter-hall – Ochan Moses(Blue Jackets, Sky Jammers, KIU)

Keem told me that he was rather unsettled in 2003, he wasn’t sure if he should continue competing in the league or ‘just play fun basketball’. He had moved from Jinja to Kampala to undertake a degree in Community Psycology at Makerere University. Keem says he didn’t quite fit in with the Kampala teams.

“I think there was a bit of frustration as well. Remember I wanted to get a scholarship to College. I had done my best but nothing had come out of it.” – Hakeem.

Hakeem believes that taking to Streetball was a calling. He remembers that he had always had the street game in him. ‘I always had those crossovers in me even while i was still in the league. I would dribble slowly to my defenders, then I erupt -That was my game. I was a crowd pleaser and everybody knows that.’ , Keem told me.  Around 2003 and 2004, The And1 Company Mixtapes would reach Uganda and when Hakeem landed on those, his mind was made up. He knew he was going the way of an entertainer but he would remain a strong pillar on the Makerere University team and also on his Nkurumah Hall team. While at Makerere, Keem says that Nkurumah won all the Inter-Hall basketball competitions.

Starting Streetball was hard. Keem didn’t know exactly what to do with it when he had just started but then he invented FreeStyle. Freestyle is a rhythmical range of streetball moves usually done on hiphop soundtracks. Keem recalls how much he loved break dance but he had never been able to dance. He always practiced while listening to hiphop music and little by little he connected the dribbling and footwork to create a rare rhythmical flavor. Urban Expression in its purest form was perfected by Hakeem through the craft of Freestyle – by far one of the most beautiful forms of artistry I’ve personally ever seen. You didn’t want to blink when Hakeem was freestyling afraid you’d miss a magical moment.

Freestyle being a form of art he could perform is small spaces, Hakeem would take his act to the stage. He performed in schools, at HipHop music festivals and soon he’d be a hit in many music videos. Keem tells me that at the time, basketball was getting only but a few articles in two Ugandan newspapers but he was doing interviews for Channel-O and EATV. At the time these where the top TV channels of Youth Urban Expression. Top artists would give anything to appear on these channels– he told me. Hakeem’s biggest stage to perform basketball freestyle in Uganda was the Pearl of Africa Music Awards, at the time, the biggest show in Uganda geared at awarding top musical artists. “I was up in all those lights performing man”. Hakeem had collaborations with Bataka Underground/Bavubuka Allstars with which they’d stage the very first HipHop and Basketball fusion festival at YMCA. He featured in multiple videos for Bella and Michael Ross.

Behind the intricate detail in his work was a lot of time dedicated to the perfection of his craft. It was practice practice practice, he says. Hakeem told me that he had to find a room outside the University’s Nkurumah hall where he had first been a resident so that he could be able to practice way after midnight. Hakeem would later mentor the young Joseph Ikong. Ikong would turn out to be a multiple league Champion, Scoring Champion and Dunking Champion – a key figure on the Uganda Silverbacks. I asked Ikong about Hakeem and his work ethic, on mentoring him – this is what he told me;

“Hakeem is a hard worker and a perfectionist. He really loved more than anything, making others love the game. When we worked out with him, he would be on court at 6:00 AM and I would join in at 7:00 AM, yet he was my senior. He was an inspiration and had a great impact on my game. Mostly, he emphasized dribbling the right way, dunking and playing with style. I brought that to the league.” – Joseph Ikong.

Ikong told me that Hakeem implored him to take up basketball emceeing along side playing, a skill he’s still a practitioner of.

Hakeem carved his fame at a time when social media and particularly Facebook was only emerging. But people didn’t have smart phones the way they do today. To access the internet, people had to pay to sit for a given time at computers in Internet Cafes.

“It’s hard to imagine how I became famous, It’s not like these days where you can become a celebrity overnight on social media. I had to walk from university to go to perform in schools. I think I performed at every school that had a basketball court, my renown went as far as Mbarara” – Hakeem

Keem told me of a story about him being seated next to a kid in the crowd at YMCA watching a basketball game and one of the kids was telling his friends about ‘a guy called Hakeem who had sick handles and trickery not knowing that I was the guy right next to him. I jokingly dropped into the conversation asking the kid to tell us more about this Hakeem‘. Such was Hakeem’s renown that people were talking about him without even being able to put a face to the name. ‘That kid turned out to be rapper Oki Foever who practiced with me later on‘.

If anything, Hakeem’s fame was forged in the crucible of hard work and commitment to his craft, but not without criticism. Hakeem says there was a lot of criticism especially from players in the league but he had so much passion to listen. He describes himself as a very spirited guy and an introvert who always sat by himself in the corners. “A lot of those comments never got to me directly because I’ve been a loner most of my life, It’s strange for me to say this because I’m a psychologist but It’s something I’ve struggled with. I grew up alone with my mum and when she passed on, the basketball was all I had.”, An emotional Keem told me.

” I had drawn a line between competing and entertaining. I was an entertainer. A lot of guys hated my gut, At basketball games and tournaments, I would call out anybody who considered himself a baller to come out and challenge me in one-on-one match ups – no star ever came out, only fans would come out and I would make a show of them. I was pulling crowds” – Hakeem

Ikong believes that there was a misconception that Hakeem’s art was overshadowing the pro game of pick-and-roll and set plays but Ikong is also very convinced that mainstream basketball had the most to gain from Hakeem’s work.

“Hakeem’s And1 drew people to the game. Most of these people were getting to see basketball for the very first time. They got hooked onto the game and later turned into mainstream basketball fans and players.” – Joseph Ikong.

Keem told me he modeled his game around non basketball personalities. He was intrigued mostly by Mike Tyson (Former World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion) and Ronaldihno the famous Brazilian soccer star. In basketball, he looked up to Michael Jordan and later Hot Sauce (legendary streetball player with And1). In Uganda, Hakeem is a fond fan of Stephen Omony.

“When I played in the league, I just hated Omony mostly because of his defense. It was just hard to go past him. He was the most explosive player I had seen. That guy is a legend – just one of the guys that shaped Ugandan basketball”, Hakeem says of Omony.

It is just right to say that the work Hakeem did together with Streetball players he inspired laid the pavers for the AND1 LIVE Tour to Kampala in 2011 and 2012. By far these tours are the biggest basketball entertainment Uganda has ever seen. Hakeem despite his renown was never drafted for the first tour in 2011 but he was drafted for the second tour in 2012 to play against some of the most legendary Streetball players he had idolized including Phillip A. Champion also known as Hot Sauce.

For his legacy, Joseph Ikong believes that Hakeem Iga is not only the best guard and ball handler Uganda has ever seen but also the greatest basketball entertainer. “Basketball is a sport of entertainment and nobody knew how to involve the crowd better than Hakeem. Nobody should forget that he won a league title and he had such a huge impact on the Makerere University team.“, Ikong told me.

Hakeem has zero regrets for taking up a craft that got him on his first flight when he visited South Africa partnering with Miles And Associates on Basketball Without Borders (BWB) projects to build basketball courts for high schools in Uganda. The same craft that saw him visit so many schools teaching life skills, made so many friends and the craft the gave him the stepping stone to open doors to all the jobs he has had. Hakeem is equally a fond believer in the truth that sports cannot be a substitute to education. The education he pursued elevated his level of thinking and creativity. He says that fame can get you a job but your job requires knowledge and professionalism.

Streetball all over the world has faded and with it Companies like And1 and BallUp that attempted to take it mainstream. The same precedent is true for Uganda especially with the departure of Hakeem from the scene. In retrospect, Hakeem is certain he could have done a few things different, like incorporating a company dedicated to promoting Streetball in Uganda and East Africa. That way, he could have ensured sustainability of the art that he perfected for Ugandans to beget. But he believes that Streetball is always there – lurking. He is sure it will return in another form sometime in the future.

Hakeem’s legacy is that of a hooper who in is own words compares what he did to taking swimming out of the swimming pool but while at it inspiring many players and not just basketball players. “I entertained, wherever that stopped is where It was supposed to stop.” – Hakeem told me.

Like Keem did, I want to implore you, if you’ve read this far; never to to be afraid of the road less traveled.

By Cucu Brian | I respond to tweets | @Cucubrian