From Nigeria to the NBA: Adem Bona’s journey from soccer-crazed kid to Sixers energy boost

WASHINGTON — At the end of each month, Adem Bona strings together a series of video clips.

The 20-minute montage might cover everyday activities, such as getting a haircut or a dinner out with friends. Or when he goes back to the 76ers’ practice facility in Camden for additional nighttime work. Or when he spent Christmas Day delivering gifts to local kids.

It’s how Bona, the Sixers’ second-year center, gives his family and friends a glimpse into his life in the NBA and in Philly.

“I try to capture as much as possible,” Bona told The Inquirer, “so they can feel like they’re a part of me.”

Because Bona’s journey is worth documenting.

The superb athlete grew up as a soccer-crazed kid in Lagos, Nigeria — until his basketball potential was literally discovered on the side of the road. He then moved to Turkey to develop his game, then to Prolific Prep in Northern California, then to UCLA.

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Since the Sixers drafted Bona in the 2024 second round, he has become a rotation staple. He entered Wednesday averaging 4.8 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes across 65 games, mostly as the backup center. Though his offensive skills are still developing, he already is a threat to run the floor, throw down lob passes, and protect the rim. Take an Oct. 28 game at the Washington Wizards — where the Sixers play again Wednesday night — that he flipped with a block to help force overtime, then scored a go-ahead putback dunk in the extra frame’s final minute.

Fueling that playing style is a constant energy that he says stems from his family and roots. UCLA assistant Darren Savino said that spirit makes Bona “the most pleasant human being you’ll ever meet.” Over the years, Bona has heard teammates and coaches say some version of, “I’ve never seen Bona sad.” Billy McKnight, who coached Bona as a high-schooler at Prolific Prep, compared his presence on a team to a thermostat.

“He’s a guy that’s going to help set the temperature in the room,” McKnight said. “He’s not a limp noodle … and I think people feed off it. It’s the beautiful thing about him.

“His big smile, when he walks in a room, he lights it up.”

Bona’s dynamic demeanor, he says, is because he is a “carbon copy of my mom.”

“She [taught] me to be happy every day,” Bona said. “Even when it’s hard.”

Udu “Cigdem” Chinyere raised Bona as a single mother after the death of his father, Chikaodiri Okoro. Bona, who was born Ikechukwu Stanley Okoro, is the youngest of five children, including two brothers, Obinna and Emeka, that Adem referred to as the “big dudes on the street” in their lively Ebonyi State.

Bona’s childhood was full of sports. He would race people in their neighborhood. He was obsessed with playing soccer, and following English Premier League team Arsenal.

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Yet his athletic path took an unexpected turn at age 13 when, while assisting his mother at her store late one night, he stepped outside to relieve himself in a gutter along the side of a road. By coincidence, a stranger spotted him and asked if he played basketball. When Bona said no but flashed intrigue, the passerby asked to speak to his mother inside.

Cigdem initially refused the offer, because she was concerned about the cost of training or joining a team.

“I promise you,” the man told Bona’s mom, “after a couple years, your son is going to go overseas to play basketball.”

In those early days, however, Bona acknowledges, “I was lost.”

He had heard of some NBA names, but had no understanding of the sport. His mom did not allow him to play on weekdays. Saturdays were for pickup games and, because Bona was so inexperienced, he “never [got] in, because I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Which was fair,” Bona says today. “I wouldn’t have picked me back then.”

Sundays, meanwhile, were for practice. Bona first needed to learn how to dribble, a skill foreign to somebody forbidden to use his hands while playing soccer. He discovered a previously unknown leaping ability, which today fuels his shot blocking and rebounding.

But the first time he tried to dunk, Bona recalled, “I almost hurt myself, because I jumped and I didn’t know how to land.”

Within a year, a “connection to a connection” got video footage of Bona in front of Türkay Çakıroğlu, a Turkish coach who was interested in training Bona.

So the teenager moved to a new country with his mom, leaving his siblings and “everything I knew” behind. The language was much different. So was the culture and food.

Yet Bona embraced the challenge, on and off the court. He became a professional with Pınar Karşıyaka. He now plays for the Turkish national team, including its run last suimmer to the EuroBasket silver medal.

“That kind of set me up for this kind of life [in the NBA],” Bona said while sitting courtside before Monday’s Sixers shootaround in Miami. “You’re traveling to different places. You have to adapt quick. You never know what team you’re going to be on. You never know what’s going to happen. Just, like, the unknown.

“It’s supposed to be scary, but I feel like I’ve seen the unknown so many times, I’m used to it now.”

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Bona set a goal to become a standout in Europe. He dreamed of playing for the Serbian team Mega Basket, where three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic developed as a teenager before he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets.

So when Prolific Prep reached out, Bona initially was uninterested. Mom, though, wanted him to make the leap to the United States. After a back-and-forth, “eventually, Mom wins,” Bona quipped.

Cigdem recognized the opportunity to play on a more prominent American stage. She also recognized the sacrifice, that she and her son probably would not see each other for a long time.

As Bona sat on the plane headed to California, he realized that, too.

“Damn,” Bona said to himself. “I’m going to have to take on this journey by myself.”

When Bona arrived at the Napa-area home of Donna and John Cordeiro, they believed he was only staying for lunch.

“And Adem’s like, ‘Where’s my room?’” Donna recalled in a 2024 conversation with The Inquirer.

The Cordeiros were not planning on hosting another player from Prolific Prep. But they became Bona’s “United States family.” Donna got a kick out of how much Bona, who is now-6-foot-10, appreciated that their door frames were nine feet tall. He also had his first birthday party at their home.

On the court, Prolific Prep founders Jeremy Russotti and Philippe Doherty raved to McKnight about Bona before the coach and player even met. Bona’s athleticism popped through his film from Europe, with McKnight thinking, “If this guy ever wanted to win a gold medal in the 400-[meter run], he could do it.”

Now, Bona was in an environment designed to assemble 10 of the best high school players to work out with and against each other, with fewer restrictions on practice time. McKnight immediately recognized all the high-motor qualities Bona already boasted. They continued to focus on shooting, ballhandling, and decision-making with his passing, forcing him to play more away from the basket offensively.

But during games, McKnight still leaned into Bona’s strengths and intangibles. In a game in Atlanta against a nationally prominent team spearheaded by future San Antonio Spurs standout Stephon Castle, McKnight repeatedly ran the same alley-oop play to Bona even as the home fans hollered, “Watch out for the lob!” When Prolific Prep stunned top-ranked Sunrise Christian in the 2022 Geico national championship, an injured Bona was still impactful on teammates from the bench, McKnight said.

“That is so important on college or on NBA rosters,” McKnight said. “You’re not always going to be on the floor, and you’re not always going to be the man — especially in the NBA. What you’re doing is you’re just being the best in the role that you can be.”

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As Bona blossomed into a five-star recruit, John Cordeiro accompanied him to college visits to Kentucky, Kansas, Baylor, and UCLA. Savino was sold on Bona while watching him during the NBPA Top 100 Camp. Bona’s team was down to about seven players, Savino recalled, and he still was “just running around like a mad man, never getting tired.”

“I reported back to the staff,” Savino said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what we’ve got to do, but we’ve got to get this guy. Because he is perfect for us.’”

That relentless effort, however, needed to be properly channeled at the college level. Bona would recklessly run over opposing players, prompting too many foul calls. And whenever he exited a game after making a mistake, Savino said, “smoke would come out of his ears.”

“He’d clench his fists so hard, you’d see the veins popping out of his forearms,” Savino said. “Because he cared so much, and was such a competitor.”

Still, Bona’s uncanny track-down blocks “out of nowhere” quickly became his trademark. Had he not missed the NCAA Tournament at the end of his freshman season due to an injury, he may have entered the draft that summer.

And even though Bona’s offensive skills still needed refinement, the Bruins relied on him to score more as a sophomore. They posted him up and, when defenders trapped him, he improved at slowing down and making the proper passing reads.

“He wasn’t shooting threes. He wasn’t up top dribbling by everybody,” Savino said. “We just pretty much made it simple: put him around the basket, and then dare people to go down there and trap.”

Bona views his college experience in two phases. His freshman season — when the Bruins already boasted future NBA players Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jaylen Clark — he wanted to be “like glue to bring the young guys together.” His sophomore season, the Bruins needed his leadership.

Savino noticed that while running the big-man drills during practices. Bona would always go first, and “he just raised everybody’s level, because he would go 100 miles an hour.” But the hyper-disciplined Bona still needed to learn how to use his voice to get through to teammates with differing personalities.

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“At first, I was mad,” Bona said. “I’m like, ‘Dang, he’s not listening.’ Then eventually I learned, ‘OK … You’ve got to talk to someone else differently.’”

Bona left UCLA after his sophomore season, as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. When NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum called Bona’s name at the draft, at 41st overall, he sat next to his crying aunt. Donna, of his Northern California host family, also shed tears.

And during a post-draft phone call, Bona’s mother expressed pride and amazement to hear their home, “Ebonyi,” said on American national television.

“I wasn’t just the only person that was proud in that moment,” Bona said. “The whole city was proud. My mom couldn’t stop saying, ‘Oh, they just said our state!’”

While on his couch days before his first NBA training camp, Bona received an out-of-the-blue text message from Andre Drummond. “Show up at the gym in 30 minutes,” it read.

“Say no more,” Bona responded. “I’ll be right there.”

Bona was already impressing Drummond, a two-time All-Star and one of the best rebounders of all time, with his physical gifts and eagerness to learn. That earned Bona an invitation to Drummond’s nighttime workouts. Yet because Bona was behind Drummond and former NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid on the center depth chart, he only expected to play “clean-up” minutes as a rookie.

When long-term injuries hit both veteran centers, however, Bona was thrust into meaningful action.

He was tasked with guarding two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player with Nigerian heritage that Bona idolized, while going 4-of-4 from the field on the offensive end in a January 2025 loss at the Milwaukee Bucks. The first time Bona played 30 minutes, he thought, “Oh my God, I’m really part of the team.” He began forging bonds with the Sixers’ other rookies, Jared McCain and Justin Edwards, by attending chapel service together before each game.

And though the Sixers’ 2024-25 season is mostly regarded as an injury-riddled disaster, Bona took advantage of the game reps.

“Those moments, they’re going to stick with me for the rest of my life,” Bona said.

Someday, Bona hopes to be regarded as one of the league’s best defenders while expanding his offensive game, quipping that, “Obviously, what I do is my bread and butter, but sometimes you’ve got to add ‘PB&J’ to it.” Sixers assistant Rico Hines, who runs the player-development program, believes an ideal model for Bona is Serge Ibaka, who could sink 15-foot jumpers and, eventually, stretched his shooting range out to the three-point line.

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Though Bona still must improve at catching the ball and cutting down on fouls, a tweaked screening technique has helped reduce whistles on the offensive end. In recent weeks, coach Nick Nurse said he has been pleased with Bona’s consistent defensive disruption and offensive decision-making throughout the season. And by playing in 65 of 73 games, he has maintained his early-season goal to be a rotation contributor for a Sixers team jockeying for postseason positioning with seven games remaining.

Bona’s early-career progression led to Monday, when he took the floor for his pregame warm-up in Miami. He backed down Fabulous Flournoy — the player-development coach with whom Bona has grown close — for a little hook shot. When Flournoy explained how Heat star Bam Adebayo might hang back in the paint if his team shifted to a zone defense, the coach implored Bona to “get a bucket” while drilling a variety of face-up moves to reach the rim.

“He’s not too much,” teammate Quentin Grimes said of Bona, “but doing just enough where he can tap out and help us win games.”

Basketball now reconnects Bona to his loved ones across the world.

In October, brothers Obinna and Emeka traveled to the Sixers’ preseason games in Abu Dhabi to watch Adem play organized basketball — at any level — for the first time. Throughout the Sixers’ win at the Sacramento Kings earlier this month, it was easy to spot (and hear) the Cordeiros hollering and raising their arms for Bona from their lower-level seats behind the basket.

Bona’s mother, however, has not yet been able to visit the United States. It is very difficult to get the appropriate travel visa from Nigeria, and Adem recently cited family obligations keeping Cigdem at home.

But he talks to his family back home “damn near every day,” and holds “FaceTime Fridays” with Donna. Perhaps they will all take a vacation someday, John Cordeiro pondered last year. Adem also is eager to return to Nigeria, to play soccer again with his childhood friends.

Until then, he will continue to bring the energy that stems from his upbringing to the Sixers.

And to send out those 20-minute monthly videos from a basketball journey worth documenting.

“They can feel like they have a presence right here with me,” Bona said. “ … For them to have them visualize it, I think that’s key and that’s powerful.”