GAINESVILLE — Rueben Chinyelu recently bought an electric bike to help him better navigate his new life here.
As he zips from classes to Gators basketball practice and home again, the 6-foot-11, 255-pound Chinyelu (pronounced chin-YAY-loo) is an outsized sight to behold — atop a bike made for someone eight inches shorter.
“It’s doing the work,” he said. “I’m super excited.”
Minor inconveniences or some occasional discomfort do not dim Chinyelu’s omnipresent smile and boundless optimism. Sacrifice the name of the game if he’s going to achieve his goals, a list that includes becoming a dentist and playing in the NBA.
Along the way, Chinyelu is sure to absorb another language or two — he speaks four well and knows enough of two others to get by.
“I just try to learn from people around me and pick up from there,” he said.
Being a social animal and citizen of the world are requisite skills to walk Chinyelu’s path. Moving to a new town and joining a new team can at times be lonely.
Chinyelu celebrated his 21st birthday two weeks ago nearly 6,000 miles from his Nigerian home . Gainesville is at least closer — and warmer — than Washington State, where he spent last season before transferring.
“It’s really tough,” he recently told the Orlando Sentinel. “You’re far away from home. Sometimes you just want to see your Mom or see your siblings. You want to eat some of Mom’s food.
“But you have to just see the bigger picture and just know that it’s a sacrifice that’s worth doing.”
Not long ago, Chinyelu never imagined he’d be playing basketball at all, even though everyone he met back home in Lagos already assumed he did.
Even in a city of nearly 15 million people, Chinyelu — a 6-foot-8 14-year-old — stood out.
“People saw me and were like, ‘Oh, you’re tall. Do you play basketball?’ I was like, ‘Nah,’” he said. “It was a regular thing for me.”
But Chinyelu, his three sisters and two brothers were laser-focused on studies, not soccer — Nigeria’s national sport and an indulgence only during recess.
Chinyelu’s attention began to shift one day at his brother-in-law’s Lagos market when he met Mrs. Allison Ibidun, a woman he would nickname “Grandma.”
When Ibidun asked if he played basketball, Chinyelu’s sheepish “nah” didn’t cut it.
“She said, ‘Why are you smiling? You could get an education playing basketball,’” he recalled. “That’s when the light switched on. It was like, now it’s making sense playing sports.”
With Ibidun advising his brother-in-law, Nta Chin Ebere, Chinyelu soon enrolled at Raptors Academy in Lagos, just shy of his 15th birthday in 2018, to begin his long and winding basketball journey.
Though he’d never played competitive sports, Chinyelu was a natural athlete, fluid and fast. He served notice during the 2019 FIBA U16 African Championship at Cabo Verde, an archipelago west of Senegal known for beautiful beaches.
Chinyelu was skinny and his skills were raw. But his relentless style set the tone for Nigeria’s third-place finish as he averaged 12.3 points and 17.6 rebounds.
“I was really rough, but was just hustling, getting the rebounds, putting back, setting the screens, rolling, just playing hard,” he said. “Our team was young, we were small, but teams didn’t want to play us. We just would come out and pour everything on the court.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the following year, times were bleak in his homeland due to lockdowns and a lack of affordable food. Yet, Chinyelu continued to pour himself into basketball.
Chinyelu said Billy Radcliffe of Miami, who served as a guardian for former FIU player James Ametepe when he came from Ghana to South Florida, shipped him two basketballs and some shoes.
Each day following his morning prayers, Chinyelu would do push-ups, sit-ups, planks and lunges, and then head outside to hone his basketball skills.
“Even though I wasn’t able to play I was able to work on my personal craft,” he said. “After the pandemic, I was big, really big, and I was fast.”
Chinyelu’s stock rose quickly in 2021 at the NBA Academy in Senegal. His big moment came during the 2022 NBA Academy Games in Atlanta, where he helped his team to the title and led the tournament in rebounding to create interest among American college scouts.
But with Kansas, Tennessee and the Gators in pursuit, Chinyelu chose to play for Kyle Smith at Washington State, a 24-hour flight from Lagos featuring three layovers. When Smith left for Stanford, Chinyelu decided to cast aside his XXXL winter coat and join Smith protégé Todd Golden in Gainesville.
“I love snow,” Chinyelu said. “But I just don’t like the cold that comes with it.”
Chinyelu also found UF’s culture to be warm and welcoming.
“[The coaches] want you to be more than a basketball player, but also a better person, have an education if you’re willing,” he said. “Some people just want you to be, basketball, basketball, basketball. But they see a different part of you, which is really beautiful.”
Chinyelu shakes his head wonderment as he considers how he got here, though he has an idea.
Athletically gifted, studious and adaptable, Chinyelu is also God-fearing.
“I’ve been to places I never thought I would have been,” he said. “I come from a family [where] we don’t have much. But we just believe and we just work hard to make a life. To travel to so many places, meet so many people, see so many cultures and being able to have education in the U.S. … if it’s not God, I don’t know what is.
“Basketball has taken me a long way. I’m just grateful God made me 6-11.”
The Gators appreciate Chinyelu, whose unique skill set will help shore up a shaky defense.
“He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever been against,” 6-foot-11, 230-pound Australian Alex Condon marveled.
Harnessing his strength is the challenge. Chinyelu ranked among the top-20 nationally last season in offensive rebounding rate, defensive rebounding rate, block rate and 2-point shooting accuracy, yet averaged just 13.9 minutes .
“The biggest thing with Rueben will be defending without fouling,” Golden said. “It’s a tricky one because he plays so hard that you don’t want to slow him down. But if he’s on the floor he’ll be productive — he’s proven that.”
Chinyelu has much to prove, but also to see, to learn, to experience.
“He’s still trying to learn America,” said guard Walter Clayton Jr. , a Lake Wales native.
Chinyelu hopes one day to get a car, since he recently earned his driver’s license — “I’m super proud of myself.”
Willing passengers might be slim pickings.
“I’ll walk,” UF veteran Will Richard joked.
Meanwhile, Chinyelu will keep putting one foot in front of the other, seeing the glass half-full every step of the way.
“It just means I’ll have more room in my car,” he said.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
Local News
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