Copyright Hartford Courant
His long, distinguished career as a basketball player over, Emeka Okafor went searching for what is now fashionably called his “second act.” He considered coaching, enrolled in the NBA’s coaching development program, but the all-consuming lifestyle wasn’t for him. He had the academic pedigree to succeed in almost any field, but needed a connection to the game. “So I took a little time off to spend time with family, with my wife and our two kids, kind of figuring out what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” Okafor said. “When mulling things over, every time I stepped into a basketball environment, I just felt at home. I explored different avenues of the game.” Now the curtain is about to go up. What’s next for Emeka Okafor, 43, star of UConn’s 2004 national championship team and veteran of 10 NBA seasons, is a broadcasting career. He has joined ESPN’s college basketball announcing team, and will debut on Nov. 16 with the Monmouth-Syracuse game on ACC Network at 9 p.m. He’s already feeling a few butterflies. Dom Amore: After years of waiting, Ayanna Patterson will finally get her chance at UConn “I’m a rookie,” Okafor said. “As a rookie, you’re going to make mistakes, there’s going to be awkwardness, there’s going to be missteps. You’ve just got to put in the reps and get better. I get to start the journey again, learning something new but in familiar surroundings, around something I love.” Fortunately, Okafor has a veteran role model in the locker room. Last March, he sat with fellow UConn alum Donny Marshall, who has had a long career as a TV analyst, to get a feel for it. “I leaned on Donny Marshall a lot,” Okafor said. “I have the utmost respect for Donny as a commentator. If I could get half as good as Donny, I’ve done my job, the way he blends storytelling, the cadence of his voice, just perfect where he draws you in. I sat with him and kind of watched him work and it helped better put in place how I should approach things and what to do.” After he first came to UConn from his native Houston in 2001, Okafor heard coach Jim Calhoun say every day, “Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.” On this front, Okafor lacks for nothing. It is clear he is all in; excited to give this a shot. He’s come to respect the difficult job the play-by-play announcer has, and the challenge he will have in being concise and precise in his comments as a game speeds by in front of him, all with producers talking into his earpiece. Okafor compares the process to visualizing the moves he wanted to make as a player, only to learn there was a defense out there. “When you’re a kid thinking ‘I want to be a basketball player,’ you have a vision of what you want to do on the court,” he said. “Then when you actually get into a game against actual players, man, there’s a difference between fantasy and the real deal. Understanding that element, with the prep work I’ve done, I’m going to get in, see how it works and develop my style from there. For me, what made this interesting, ‘Dang, you’ve been in this your whole life and you really didn’t know how it works.'” Calhoun, who did some TV work after he retired, anticipates a successful transition for Okafor, who graduated in three years with a degree in finance. “He has a remarkable ability to retain information,” Calhoun said. “I’ve seen him give speeches without notes.” Okafor is not sure how many games he will do, but he is ticketed to work games from several leagues across all of ESPN’s platforms; it’s not known if he will work any UConn games. He’s developing his habits of scouting and prep as he goes, gradually figuring out what will work. “This next step was going to be, ‘What am I passionate about?’ and for me, that’s ball,” Okafor said. “I love ball, I love what it brings, I love the lessons you can learn, the changes you can make, it’s been good to me, so it’s, ‘Let me use ball in a different way now.’ “The personal growth I can get from this, you never know, it excites me to have the chance to get good at something. I enjoy waking up and saying, ‘Okay, man, I’m going to get better.'” He gravitated toward college basketball because of how much he enjoyed his time at UConn, where he was Big East Player of the Year and the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and averaged 13.8 points, 10.6 rebounds in 103 college games. The No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft, he averaged 12.0 and 9.7 in the league, though his career was curtailed by back injuries. He made a comeback after five years, playing his last game for New Orleans in 2018. The college game has changed quite a bit, an understatement, since Okafor’s time with a powerhouse UConn team full of future pros. He finds himself a little conflicted. “I do like players getting paid,” Okafor said. “That’s a good thing. I remember when I played, we would eat our pregame meal and I would have to pack a to-go plate for after the game because if I didn’t, there was a strong chance I’d go hungry. That sounds absolutely insane, but there was only so much Coach could do because they were watching like hawks. But it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Whenever you add money to it, there is the sullying effect that money has. It becomes more transactional. The tradeoff is, there is a little bit of that college experience that goes out the window. “Me and Ben (Gordon) were roommates for three years and every single day we’d talk about wanting to be a champion, and we knew we were going to be there next year. Now everyone has one eye askew. The college fanfare is still there, but you can’t invest as much because you know things can change.” Speaking of team loyalties, we couldn’t end the call without an all-important question. Seven-game series, 2004 Huskies vs. 2024 Huskies. Who does ‘Mek have? If he’s going to do TV, no waffling allowed. “I will say it goes to Game 7, but I’ve got to go with the ’04 Huskies,” he said. “Me and Charlie (Villanueva) were talking about this, how we’d stack up against the other squad. Generationally, things are just different. There was a certain precision to the way (Dan Hurley’s team) ran their offense and defense, but we just got after it. And I think over a seven-game series, it’d go back and forth, but ultimately we’d come out on top.” More for your Sunday Read: Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: UConn star grows sport in Jamaica; Paige Bueckers … never heard of her Former Huskies helping home island Jamaica is struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa, the massive storm that battered the Island on Oct. 21. Two former UConn basketball stars are putting their champions’ mentality to work on the island to which they have strong ties. Kentan Facey, who left Jamaica 15 years ago to play basketball in the U.S., a member of UConn’s 2014 men’s championship team, still has most of his family living in a farming community on the Island. He has launched fundraising efforts to help with the recovery, including a GoFundMe page. “Much of my hometown, the Parish of Trelawney, remains without power, communication or essential services, leaving families struggling to access food, clean water and basic supplies,” Facey said. His GoFundMe page set a goal of $20,000 and as of Friday had topped $14,000. Tina Charles, the UConn women’s basketball great now with the Connecticut Sun, considers Jamaica her “second home,” as her mother was born there. Charles was in Jamaica when the storm hit, and waited to get her mother out. While there, she appeared on TV to describe the devastation and has since been spreading the word on social media on how to help through various relief organizations such as the Red Cross. “It’s very gut-wrenching,” Charles told the CBS Morning News. “It leaves me emotional and I plan to do whatever I can to help.” Sunday short takes *The Women’s Professional Baseball League, co-founded by former MLB coach Justine Siegal, will launch in 2026, picking up where the All-American League, which folded in 1954 and was immortalized in the film, “A League Of Their Own,” left off. The league will have six teams, with a draft coming up soon. Don’t be surprised if former UConn softball star Lexi Hastings hears her name called. *A bright light throughout the Rockies’ dismal season was catcher Hunter Goodman, the Yard Goats’ alum. Goodman won a Silver Slugger Award, batting .278 with 31 homers and 91 RBI. UConn’s George Springer picked up his third silver bat. *UConn’s J. Robert Donnelly Husky Heritage Sports Museum is getting a new addition. The plaque commemorating football player Gardner Dow, a New Haven native who died from a traumatic head injury suffered in a game at New Hampshire in 1919, has been restored for display in the museum. The old football field, located near where the library now stands, was renamed in his honor. Later, the plaque was in Hawley Armory. Now Dow’s memory will be honored, fittingly, in the museum, where the plaque will be dedicated on Dec. 18 at 11 a.m. *Cooperstown needs to reinvigorate its induction ceremonies, so I will not be surprised if the veteran’s committee unlocks the doors for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens when they meet next month. *Northeastern will play its final basketball game at historic Matthews Arena in Boston on Nov. 15. Among the famous figures in attendance will be Calhoun, who coached those Huskies from 1972 until coming to UConn in 1986. The UConn hockey team will play there that night. *Former Yale perimeter-shooting star John Poulakidas, waived by the Clippers in mid-October, is likely to end up with their the G League affiliate in San Diego. NBA starts review of policies after gambling-related arrests of Rozier, Billups Last word *A Quinnipiac poll this week indicated that one third of American’s believe NBA coaches and/or players are involved to one degree of another in illegal activities to influence gambling on games. Also among the findings, nearly two-thirds believe the growth of legal sports betting has led to an increase in illegal activity to influence games, and more than two-thirds believe “prop bets” should be illegal. No question, the proliferation of legal gambling, and pro sports leagues hopping into bed with it, is rapidly eroding Americans’ confidence in the sports we watch.
