Mouhamed Sene

Senegal basketball star tries to give backTuesday, June 23, 2009 By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press WriterPrintDAKAR, Senegal —  He moves across the sand-specked basketball court swathed in the glossy dark blue jersey of his old Japanese pro team, a keepsake from a career that propelled him around the world.Now back home in Africa, playing among friends, Ndongo Ndiaye is in no hurry to impress anymore. But when a crosscourt pass comes his way, time stands still for a moment.The 7-foot-1 Senegalese hoop star snatches the ball from the air and slams it home in one deft motion _ just like the old days.Not long ago, Ndiaye lived the life of a professional international athlete, scoring kudos, cash and respect on courts from the U.S. to Lebanon to Japan.Plucked from teenage obscurity by an American scout, he turned basketball into a 14-year trek across the globe, experiencing things along the way that people in his tiny West African village never had, from hot showers to the finest sashimi an...

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