It was the moment Olivier-Maxence Prosper, affectionately known as “OMax”, has been working for his entire life.
The Montreal native was selected 24th overall at the NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings and immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
But for OMax, it’s not about where he will play, it’s all about the rivals he will face.
OMax comes from a basketball family. His mother Guylaine and father Gaetan were college basketball all-star players.
His sister Cassandre is also on the path to the WNBA.
Until now, the 20-year-old, six-foot-eight-inch, 230-pound player was a junior forward for the Marquette Golden Eagles, a top-tier American college basketball team, where he developed into a first-draft round pick.
But that’s not where OMax first caught the eye of coaches and scouts.
“We’ve known him for a while, he played for our provincial teams,” said Alejandro Habani, Basketball Quebec’s technical director.
“It’s a true pride to have one of our Quebec players in the big elite.”
At Basketball Without Borders Americas Camp, NBA hopefuls from across Latin America and Canada are working to achieve what OMax has just done.
“When OMax got drafted, it blew my mind cause I’ve been following since he was in my footsteps,” said Babatunde Durodola, “and to see somebody I’ve been looking up to get drafted, it blew me and hopefully I can end up in his footsteps one day.”
Durodola very well might. He is taking part in the same NBA development camp OMax once attended in Mexico.
The camp is being held in Montreal for the first time to foster top players. It’s the search for the next OMax.
“This camp can be sort of that springboard for many of these players,” said Chris Ebersole, head of Elite Basketball at the NBA.
“What makes this program so cool is to see them not only achieve great success but then to come back around to serve as sort as ambassadors and mentors,” Ebersole said.
Mentoring this year is Montrealer and Oklahoma City Thunder player Luguentz Dort.
He says he is looking forward to adding one more Montrealer to the big leagues.
“I was real happy. I mean, I heard so much about him while he was doing his draft process, I was shook,” Dort told Global News.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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