Cape Town Tigers assistant coach Vincent Ntujna has been selected to join the Minnesota Timberwolves for the NBA Summer League, in the wake of his team's Basketball Africa League playoff qualification.
Ntunja, a veteran of the South African basketball scene, was put forward for a Summer League spot by BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall after helping the team, headlined by Zaire Wade, narrowly reach the playoffs in Kigali, Rwanda (May 20-27).
Ntunja told ESPN he has spent every spare hour researching the players he is expecting to work with: "The opportunity for me to come and show my skill set and also what I'm made of with the Timberwolves team - I feel I'm more than ready to do so.
"I understand as well that it's bigger than me - it's not just me wearing the Tigers brand, going to represent. It's me wearing the South African flag on my shoulders, showing that in Africa, we are capable of being on that stage as well.
"Having a backup of such a high caliber of coaching staff next to me just speaks volumes in terms of how quickly I can take myself to that next level in just learning and just continuously being a better man in the game of basketball and obviously getting to the next level of coaching."
Ntunja will be joined in the Summer League by Driss Akil, who was rewarded for his work as an assistant coach for Morocco's AS Salé with a spot on the Charlotte Hornets coaching staff.
Last year, François Enyegue (FAP) and Emmanuel Mavomo (Espoir Fukash) were the coaches invited to the Summer League with the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors respectively.
Ntunja, who was once hand-picked by Michael Jordan as the MVP at one of his basketball camps, turned down the chance to study in the USA in order to stay home in Cape Town and take care of his sick mother.
He was determined to help the game grow in South Africa, but it appeared his efforts were in vain as his country became increasingly irrelevant in African basketball. However, that changed as he transitioned from playing to coaching with the American-owned Cape Town Tigers in the BAL.
READ: Vincent Ntunja shook Michael Jordan's hand, then went back home
Ntunja explained: "I had already turned down an offer to study in the US because my mother was sick, and when I came back to South Africa, I wanted to make something out of myself. That included playing basketball at a professional scale and balancing it with my academics.
"So fast-forward now before the Cape Town Tigers came, I felt that basketball was being short-changed on the growth that it was supposed to [have] and the way it was supposed to be [in South Africa] as a country itself.
"The sport is not just a sport on the court - it's a lifestyle, it's a fashion, it's hip-hop - all those elements put together. I'm associated with people who are around those lifestyles. Like, I did fashion shows myself, I still do modelling, all that stuff.
"I have friends who are hip-hop heads who continuously wear basketball shirts and want to look the part. For me, when I had always been around that culture, I felt short-changed that basketball was not where it was supposed to be.
"I had a little bit of hope just taken away from me on where it was supposed to be, but I never lost it completely. I always believed that the effort, the work that I'd put in was going to pay off somehow. I didn't know when or how."
The immediate priority for Ntunja will be to help the Cape Town Tigers improve on last year's quarter-final exit at the BAL as they take on Stade Malien at the same stage in Kigali on May 20.