In 2011, Siakam went along with friends to a basketball camp organised by Cameroonian NBA star Luc Mbah a Moute. Now a veteran of the league for 10 seasons, Mbah a Moute, 33, still runs annual basketball camps in his homeland. They also helped another player from the country make it in the NBA – Joel Embiid, the 25-year-old Philadelphia 76ers centre.
Despite never having played organised basketball before, aged 17 Siakam’s competitiveness and athleticism were impossible to ignore and a year later he was invited to attend the NBA’s international development program, Basketball without Borders (BWB), in South Africa.
“It was a big thing for me,” Siakam says. “Not because I had a great basketball experience there but the environment around it. The NBA, the coaches. It opened my eyes to a different world that I didn’t really know about.
“It got me excited and I felt like, if I got a chance to go to the US and play, why not? Also, get a good education. That was the dream.”
Playing in the NBA was at this stage still never an expectation – not for Siakam nor those close to him. But he was gaining admirers.
“He was a scrawny, skinny kid,” says Masai Ujiri, Toronto Raptors president, who first met Siakam in South Africa at the BWB camp in 2012. “But you could tell his skillset. He had scoring in him. He was just very passionate about the game. You could tell it was his all. I loved that about him.”
Ujiri is one of the NBA’s most admired executives for the way he has overseen the Raptors’ recent rise to the top. Like Siakam, he was raised in Africa – in Nigeria – and for years he has looked to invest in the continent, both through the NBA and individually, with his own outreach programme, Giants of Africa.
Of course, at the time of their first meeting in 2012 Ujiri had no idea that four years later he would be drafting Siakam as a first-round pick. But he could see a special energy, a spark to his game. It has stayed with him.
“He was just so competitive and wanted to win,” Ujiri says. “You see that mind developing. For a kid to have that at a young age, it transfers. When Pascal plays now, you see winning.”
Siakam says: “I wasn’t the greatest player but I was relentless, having that mentality to never give up and always go hard no matter what.
“I’m an athlete. Anything that involves running or jumping I’ve always been excited about, so basketball was exciting.”
By 2012, Siakam’s three older brothers had each gained scholarships in the United States. The younger Siakam would soon follow suit. His energy and enthusiasm at BWB had piqued the interest of scouts from the US. He was offered the chance to move to Lewisville to finish high school. Now aged 18, he would be leaving a whole life behind.
“Moving from Cameroon to Texas, that was a change. Learning English, the culture, everything was different so I had to adjust,” he says.
“But I’ve always been able to change scenery. From a young age, I was taught how to do that and I kind of do it naturally.”
After graduating from high school, Siakam gained a scholarship with New Mexico State University. While he was there, in October 2014, tragedy struck. His father Tchamo was killed in a car accident back home in Cameroon. Everything Siakam has done on a basketball court since is an energetic tribute to his dad.
“My dad worked hard to take care of six kids,” Siakam says. “He worked hard to make sure we had everything we needed. He had his dream and I’m able to fulfil that. I’m proud that I’m able to do that now. I just wish he was here to see it.”