Dec. 15, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
Traveling on a lunar mission for NASA seemed more probable.
At least that’s how Festus Ezeli felt eight years ago when he arrived at Vanderbilt as a raw, untapped 6-foot-11 basketball prospect. Then just 17 years old, Ezeli didn’t foresee a career in the NBA.
In fact, basketball offered a scholarship and an opportunity to pursue aspirations of medical school.
“Basketball was a means to an end,” Ezeli said. “I think the goal for me was to get a degree at the end of the day. When I came here I was a biology major. My goal was to be a doctor. So the NBA wasn’t in the plans. There was a possibility. But, just like anything, there’s a possibility I can go to the moon some day. It was kind of far fetched.”
Eight years later, far-fetched transformed into an unfathomable reality for Ezeli.
Sitting in the same film room in Memorial Gymnasium where he began to really grasp basketball Xs and Os, Ezeli flashed that trademark smile Vanderbilt fans became so familiar with during his decorated college career.
“My life so far has been like a movie,” he said. “Sometimes I sit back and I can’t really fathom this point in my life how I got here.”
In September, Ezeli returned to campus with the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy in tow. Three months before, the 26-year-old helped the Golden State Warriors win their first NBA Championship in 40 years.
In doing so he became just the second Vanderbilt player to win an NBA title, joining fellow big man Will Perdue, who won four titles with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs. Ezeli brought the glimmering, gold Larry O’Brien trophy back to West End on a Saturday in September when the football team played Georgia.
He joined the set of SEC Nation on the SEC Network, taking selfies with students and dunking on TV personality Paul Finebaum. He ventured into Vandyville and tailgated with Commodore fans, stopping everywhere for photos with the trophy. At the football game, he served as the game’s honorary captain, dropping the anchor in a pregame ceremony at midfield.
It was a joyous homecoming for Ezeli, who graduated with an economics degree in May of 2012 – just a month before the Warriors drafted him in the first round.
“I laid a lot of my foundation here in school,” he said. “I think of it as home, because when I came here I felt like I was a kid and I had a lot to learn – basketball-wise, off the court and life in general. I learned a lot when I was here.”
Ezeli spent five years on campus.
Having moved from Nigeria to California when he was 14, he had never played organized basketball until the summer before his freshman year. Thus, he was redshirted by head coach Kevin Stallings during the 2007-08 season.
The year off paid huge dividends for Ezeli as he was able to learn the game of basketball at a more comfortable pace. He said he fed off Stallings’ energy that can sometimes be interpreted as crazy.
“He is crazy in the right direction,” Ezeli said. “He wants us to be successful so badly that he kind of comes off as being crazy. I think I fed off that some. I understood where he was coming from and I understood where everybody was coming from. Everybody wanted us to succeed and being in an environment like this is very special.”
Ezeli began to understand the sport and see his potential as a center unfold. Therefore, his career goals started to change.
“After a couple years of playing here at Vanderbilt and playing under Coach Stallings, I kind of had to re-evaluate myself,” he said. “I started to fall in love with the game. I just felt like being a doctor was not what I wanted to do. That is not what was going to make me fulfilled. I have some goals I want to reach in life and people I want to touch and things I want to do in terms of helping my country, where I come from in Nigeria. I felt like I could do that better playing basketball with the platform that I have.”
In August, basketball offered Ezeli exactly that opportunity to give back to his native continent as he was part of the first NBA game on African soil.
The league held an exhibition game in Johannesburg, South Africa between Team Africa, which consisted of first and second-generation African players, and Team World, featuring prominent players from around the globe. The game was sold out and played in support of Boys & Girls Clubs of South Africa, SOS Children’s Villages Association of South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
In addition, Ezeli and the NBA held several basketball clinics for local youth and visited the Apartheid Museum with the Basketball Without Borders program.
“That was special to me because I brought the game that I love to a continent I love even more,” he said. “The people, the reception, the things we were able to do down there made me very proud to be in the NBA. I didn’t know that the NBA had such a strong imprint on Africa. They have been doing a lot of work way before I got here. I hope to carry it on in the future.”
Those doors that have led him to this point in his career, though, began to open at Vanderbilt.
His redshirt freshman year, opposing fans looked at him as nothing more than a big guy who could dunk in the layup line during pregame warmups. But his coaches saw much more.
“I had people around me that supported me,” he said. “The coaches who recruited me  King Rice and Dan Muller (now head coaches at Monmouth University and Illinois State, respectively). They were people who were in my ears every day. Talking to me and telling me they believe in me. I think that was important for me as a kid. Because there are days when there are up-and-down days. There are days when you’re like, ‘Aw, man I had a great game! I’m (going to be) an NBA player.’ And there are days were you’re like, ‘Man, I played terrible. Can I really make it?’
“It was always good to have that support system around me that always continued to help me believe and continued to keep me focused and continued to help me work hard. That was very important for me.”
On paper, the progress started out slow but Ezeli steadily developed into one of the most formidable big men in the Southeastern Conference, if not the country. After serving as A.J. Oglivy’s backup the first two years and averaging just 3.8 points a game, he took off.
During the 2010-11 season, he became a reliable threat on offense with 13 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. Defensively, he was a wall down low, setting the school record for blocks in a season with 87. His senior season, despite missing his first 10 games due to a knee injury, he was named Second Team All-SEC – a huge accomplishment considering where he was just three years before. He averaged 10 points and six rebounds for the second straight year and left as the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 204.
One of his most cherished memories during his playing career, though, doesn’t revolve around an individual feat. Three years later, Ezeli still beams when thinking about the Commodores knocking off No. 1 Kentucky, the eventual national champ, to win Vanderbilt’s first SEC Tournament championship in more than 61 years.
“It was fun to leave college on top of the SEC as SEC champions,” he said.
Just three months after hoisting the SEC Tournament championship, Ezeli’s wildest dreams came true when the Golden State Warriors drafted him in the first round. For someone who used basketball as a means to an end, it was a surreal feeling. But, again to Ezeli, it might not have been the highlight of that summer.
“I’ve had a few top moments in my life and I think that was one of the top moments  being able to graduate with an economics degree,” he said. “That was very special. Not a lot of people in my position… playing basketball they (can) leave (school) early. One of my focuses I made was I had to graduate. That was one of the goals I set for myself when I came here – I had to graduate. The school, everybody made it possible for me. I think, with the whole program, the way it is set up, I had a lot of support from people who helped me achieve my goal.”
With an NBA championship under his belt, Ezeli isn’t about to get complacent. He enters his fourth year with the Warriors, who are hungry for another championship.
He plans to continue to use the sport that has given him so much, and spring-boarded him to where he is now as a professional basketball player and philanthropist, but most importantly, as a person.
“It is kind of weird to say but playing basketball has taught me so much about life,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about self-discipline, teamwork, sacrificing for the good of others. I really love the game. There have been a lot of peaks and valleys. But to be here as an NBA champion I could not have written a better script.”