Khaman Maluach and the Age Issue

How old is he? Does it even matter?

The (supposedly) 19-year-old will be playing college ball for Duke next season, and is a projected lottery selection.

However, a key point in the discussion of him as a prospect relates to his age. I tend to, as someone raised in and currently living in Africa, feel like most of the “he’s actually 5 years older than he says” talk about African prospects is incredibly racist. However, there is a lot about Malach’s story that does give me red flags. If you were going to lie about your age he has many of the issues you would look for, I will go ahead and cover this in this article. That being said, I am going to be consistent and treat him the same way I have treated every other African prospect.

The Wolof people of west Africa have a proverb,  “Ndanka, Ndanka moy kappa golo xi na.” For those of you who don’t speak Wolof “Slowly, Slowly the man chases the Monkey through the grass.” This means somethings you have to do slowly and with a plan.  I am going to use this advice and try to explain how things used to work in parts of Africa and how that isn’t how it happens now. 

I will start by saying this, most African’s know how old they are now, especially those from big cities (this is the reason Jonathan Kuminga for example was not someone I have been worried about) while in the bush its not as vital. They might not have a birth certificate but generally you are now starting school young enough that you can not be super far off the age of your peers without it being noticed.

That was not always the case. I know many people from Nigeria who didn’t know their age, the government had a test to see if you were old enough to go to school based on how you could take your right arm and place it over your head and touch your left ear, if you could touch your left shoulder in that way then you could pay taxes. While this isn’t a scientific method of judging age, it is what they had.

Now, Hakeem Olajuwan was born in Lagos, the most populous metropolitan area on the continent and Dikembe Mutombo (Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo) was born in Kinshasa; I would have been very surprised if their ages are off by more than 10-15 months. Manute Bol was born in the bush, barely had a primary education and was a shepherd and lion hunter who was found and was athletic enough to try to play professional football (soccer for my American friends) as a “teen” he didn’t have an exact age, he fully admitted he did not know his age. 

After some investigative research, here is what we found:

Maluach is from an especially under developed area of South Sudan. As far as we know, there are no records of him in South Sudan (not surprising even if every part of his story is true). There also aren’t any pictures of him in primary or secondary school.

The earliest records we have of him are as a mid to late teenager in a refugee camp approximately 300 miles into Uganda and 600+ miles away from where he said he was. While none of this proves he’s older than he says this is exactly the way you would expect someone to fake it. It brings to mind the Ersan Ilysova scandal where Uzbekistan actually claims he was three years older and was an Uzbekistani citizen.

Also, I would feel gross if I did not point out that in Africa age is greatly respected, if one were to lie about age it will almost always be to say they are older than younger. The key question here is; if Maluach were two, even three years older than we know now, how much would that impact the way you perceive him as a prospect.

Maluach is extremely skilled for someone who has only been playing the sport for five years. If he’s 21 at the draft instead of 19 does that really change the evaluation that much? Maluach is interesting, he’s huge he’s decently skilled and he’s got some great defensive instincts. He reminds me a bit of Myles Turner. I’m excited to see where he ends up in the coming year, if he can truly become a floor spacer he’s super intriguing.

He played for a South Sudanese professional team in 3 separate seasons, during which he was incredible, and made a clear name for himself. He has dominated Basketball without borders competition. He made the Olympic team even if he only played in two games. He was clearly considered the best Center in his class. If he continues this pace at Durham I just see no reason to not accept the risk that he might be a few years older (or just as likely younger) and draft the kid as if he is the same age as he says he is.

However, it could be left to the interpretation of ones draft philosophy. It will no doubt make more of an impact on some NBA front offices than others.