Nate Ament’s mother used to struggle to tell her kids about her life’s journey.
Ament, 18, will soon begin his freshman season for the Tennessee Volunteers after turning down a multitude of suitors. He is one of the most hyped prospects in college basketball, and is widely seen as a top contender to go first overall in the 2026 NBA draft and make millions of dollars in salary and endorsements.
One generation before him, Ament’s mother, Godelive Mukankuranga, was born of Tutsi ancestry in Rwanda. And after she finished elementary school, Mukankuranga had limited options — she wasn’t allowed to go to a public secondary school because of her heritage. And private school would be expensive.
Mukankuranga, however, was offered through UNICEF a chance to go to school in Pisa, Italy. She lived with an Italian couple who would eventually become her adoptive parents while she studied to be a nurse. What Mukankuranga left behind was her home country and most of her family, who would become entangled in the Rwandan Civil War — and the concurrent genocide against the Tutsi.
“I did not really talk with my kids a lot about it because they were young and I didn’t want them to know this sad news,” Mukankuranga told NBC News. “Slowly, I introduced to them what happened to me.”
Mukankuranga lost her mother, a brother, two sisters and several other family members in the genocide. She wouldn’t return home until 1995, after completing her schooling as a nurse, to help with relief efforts in Rwanda.
Three years later, in 1998, Mukankuranga met Albert Ament, a former basketball player at Wayne State University. After falling in love — and after Albert helped restore Mukankuranga’s religious faith — they moved to Italy and ultimately Virginia, where they raised their four sons.
Growing up, her son was always more of a soccer player. That was the sport he dreamed of playing professionally as a child. It wasn’t until he was 13 and looking for activities during the onset of the Covid pandemic that he began to take basketball more seriously, playing outdoors relentlessly with his brothers and friends.
Now, Ament is described by ESPN’s draft experts as “ultra-talented” with “shotmaking prowess, defensive versatility and scoring ability” that could make him a franchise leader.
This summer, before his freshman season and 30 years after his mother returned home, Ament made his own visit to Rwanda. Ament had visited two times before, mostly to spend time with family.
But on this trip, Ament had a different purpose. Like his mother before him, he wanted to give back, coaching at multiple basketball camps, helping administer medical aid and meeting with the country’s minister of sport.
“It was important for me to introduce myself to the country of Rwanda,” Ament said. “I want to do as much as I can for that country. They’re using sport as a big way to build things up. I want to help in any way I can.”
“It means a lot to me,” Mukankuranga said about Ament embracing his Rwandan heritage. “To see him going back and doing good things for Rwanda is making me very happy.”
Rwanda is still very much dealing with the legacy of the genocide, both internally in terms of its politics, and externally in terms of how the country is perceived. Both Ament and Mukankuranga speak highly of the country’s natural beauty and how much it has progressed over the last 30 years. (In the capital of Kigali, says Mukankuranga, you can shop just like you can in America.)
Ament wants to be in a position to not only help people in the country now, but maybe even serve as a symbol of hope for the younger generation. He knows, though, that any aims he has of giving back will in part depend on how much he can thrive in his basketball career.
“The biggest thing for me right now is I have to have a lot of success on the court for me to be able to even put myself in a position to support Rwanda,” Ament said. “So for me, I’m getting as ready as possible for this freshman year to make sure that I’m in the best position myself and putting out the best product for the country. And then we’ll see what happens in the future. We’ve been talking with everybody from over there, and even then, they told me that the most important thing I can do is be successful.”
Ament certainly has the physical makeup to be successful.
He’s 6-foot-10 with shooting and dribbling ability much closer to that of a guard than a center. His wiry frame and outside shot have already drawn comparisons to future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, which Ament calls a blessing.
For good measure, Ament’s head coach with the Volunteers will be Rick Barnes, who was the Texas Longhorns coach during Durant’s lone season in college in 2006. Ament and his Tennessee coaches have been watching film of players such as Durant and Jayson Tatum as a foundation for how he should play.
After Ament signed with Tennessee, Barnes called the prized recruit “a high-character, family-oriented young man with a tremendous, caring support system around him who will mesh with our program from day one.”
“He brings a dynamic skill set to the hardwood, embodying the attributes of a modern basketball player,” Barnes said. “Standing out with next-level positional size, he possesses the rare combination of the ability to dribble, pass and shoot with confidence and precision. Nate has a strong basketball IQ to go along with an excellent pairing of skill and toughness. He’s the kind of versatile talent who can impact the game in a variety of ways and, in our eyes, he was the No. 1 player in the class.”
Ament, though, doesn’t want to be compared to other NBA talents. He says people should expect something unique when he takes the floor.
“I think I’ll show people a different type of player than a lot of people are used to,” Ament said. “An NBA-type player that can do some things that people of my size don’t typically do in college basketball. That with coach Barnes putting me in the right positions to have success on the floor, it’s going to be exciting.”
As far as Ament’s mental makeup — as he tries to navigate college with the goal of the NBA closer than ever, all while learning more about and trying to embrace his family’s past — Ament draws on his mother for strength.
“My mom, she sets an inspiration for me,” Ament said, noting that after the hardships she endured, she was working three different nursing jobs at one point while raising him and his three rambunctious brothers. “The strength that my mom has motivates me so much. I’m grateful to not have to go through a situation like she or her family had to. It gives me a deeper understanding of how much I should really cherish the people I have.”
Mukankuranga says she feels stronger when she hears how highly Ament speaks of her. Mukankuranga is excited for him to embark on his own journey, though she says it’s “stressful” to watch Ament play because of how miserable he is when he loses. (She also wants him to finish college, which likely won’t be happening for a little while.)
Mukankuranga knows, though, that her son’s next chapter could help the country she had to leave.
“He can help the young generation move on from what happened to Rwanda,” Mukankuranga said. “Tell them there is a positive side after what happened. He is a product of a mother who escaped genocide. The young kids who see him, he can be an example for those kids. They can grow and try to move on.”