Massachusetts basketball star aims to be a mentor to the next generation of players
STOUGHTON - The BZ-MVP of the Week is a Massachusetts basketball star who paved his own path and is now teaching the next generation.
Paved his own path
When he pops on the microphone inside the Dana Barros Basketball Club in Stoughton, an entire building of basketball players follow his lead. Campers call him "the professor" but his name is Precious Okoh.
Okoh is a recent college graduate who's paved his own path on and off the court.
"I grew up in the projects, nothing, I came from nothing," said Okoh. "I was a first-generation American."
A path full of twists and turns, with four high schools and four colleges. His mother was pregnant with him when she arrived in America from Nigeria back in 2000.
"She's my best friend, she's my biggest motivator, she's the reason I do everything, she's the reason I work hard every day," said Okoh.
The oldest of four siblings, Okoh grew up playing basketball with his three sisters. When he started playing high school ball, Okoh went from Cardinal Spelman, to Brockton High School, to Springfield Commonwealth Academy and finally Bradford Christian Academy. Each stop moving him a step closer to playing at the next level.
"I just felt like, in high school, I was chasing a scholarship because I knew I couldn't pay for school," said Okoh. "Being with my mom, she couldn't pay for school."
"You've got to be the one to take the initiative"
Okoh said he knew it would take a scholarship for him to go to college but by the end of his senior season, he still didn't have one. Not until he was helping out at an Amateur Athletic Union tournament and decided to go up and introduce himself to a coach in attendance from the University of Maine.
"So we finished up the tournament for the day, I'm walking out, 10 minutes later, literally 10 minutes later...he follows me on Twitter and asks for my film. I go up the next week for a workout, got a scholarship within the next two weeks," said Okoh. "it showed me what it took to really grasp what you want in life. You've got to be the one to take the initiative."
It's that epiphany that Okoh now preaches to kids as a skills trainer at a camp put on by former Celtics player Dana Barros.
"He'll tell his story to the kids and it's truly inspiring, it's not just basketball related," said Barros.
Off the dribble, he has off the cuff conversations with campers about what he's learned it'll take to make their dreams a reality.
"Me, I'm 24, just getting my journey started," said Okoh. "But I wish that somebody would have told me what I know now back then. I tell them that, don't think the NBA's out of reach. Don't think that Division I basketball is out of reach. It's hard but it's just hard work."
Closing out his collegiate career at Bridgewater State, as the Bears' leading scorer, Okoh is working to prolong his basketball life at the pro level. No matter what path he takes, moving forward he knows it'll involve him trying to be the mentor he wishes he had.
"I understand that I was blessed with a gift that people are always going to look up to me wherever I go. One way or another, I'm going to be a mentor, I'm going to be a role model, I'm going to be someone that the younger generation looks up to."