What’s next for Charles Bassey? Charting the recently released Sixers center’s NBA journey and tenuous future

SAN ANTONIO — At this point, all Charles Bassey can do is wait for another NBA opportunity.

The reserve center was released by the 76ers Thursday morning after appearing in just one of the four exhibition games.

Bassey had to know his release was coming. He is smart enough to realize that limited game reps and practice cameos don’t equal a roster spot. Not for a fourth-string center with just $74,742 guaranteed on the second and final year of his contract.

So the only thing left for the 21-year-old from Lagos, Nigeria, to do is hope for another opportunity while the Sixers are cutting their roster down to 15 players — plus two two-way signees — before starting the regular season.

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A source said several NBA teams have already reached out to Bassey’s agent. But the uncertainty he is experiencing can’t compare to the precariousness he has endured during his basketball journey.

Bassey took a long, hard road to the Sixers. When he was first set to arrive in the United States, his pre-arranged host school backed out shortly before his arrival. He later lost his mother and could not attend her funeral. Bassey’s admittance to a Texas private school also came into question before he transferred. And, finally, after forgoing his senior year of high school to play for Western Kentucky, Bassey suffered a season-ending knee injury in college and slid to the 53rd pick of the 2021 NBA draft.

After enduring so many hurdles, Bassey is built to handle uncertainty and adversity. But even after being waived by the Sixers, Bassey can take satisfaction in knowing he’s come a long way from the moment he was spotted selling chickens as a scraggly, 6-foot-5 preteen on the side of the road.

Bassey was born on Oct. 28, 2000, the second of Akpan and Grace Bassey’s three children. Bassey was bookended by two sisters, Angela and Glory.

Growing up, Bassey knew very little about basketball. Soccer was his sport. Addicted to the game, Bassey, an avid player, would watch matches until midnight. Until one day, Oladele Simon Awonuga, a Nigerian basketball coach, approached the Bassey family chicken stand and couldn’t keep his eyes off the tall kid playing soccer.

He asked Bassey if he played basketball. “I was like, ‘Nah, man,’ ” Bassey said. “‘No one even knows there’s basketballs in Africa. We play soccer.’”

But the coach didn’t give up. A week later, he approached Bassey again during a pickup soccer game.

“He came out there and talked to me,” Bassey said. “I think he talked to one of my friends and they took him to where I lived.”

Days later, he returned home from school to find Awonuga talking to his parents about the opportunities basketball could provide. Surprisingly, Bassey gave it a try and impressed Awonuga enough that he called Hennssy Auriantal, a coach at Jackson State University, after a few workouts.

Auriantal, a Montreal native and former Wisconsin point guard, ran Y II Success, an organization that helped bring international players to American private schools.

“He said he found a kid down the street and he needed help training the kid,” Auriantal said, “and that he was going to be very good.”

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So he sent Awonuga workout videos. In return, Auriantal received videos of Bassey performing what he learned.

“But two years went by before I heard from the guy again,” Auriantal said. “At that time, the guy sent another video. Charles was making jump shots and moving well in the video. He was about 6-8 and 14 [years old].”

This time, Awonuga asked Auriantal to help Bassey land a scholarship at an American prep school. But Auriantal and his wife, Nathalie Romao, had no intentions of hosting another overseas basketball player. They actually were looking forward to devoting time to their newborn son, Naevhenl. And Auriantal was excited about moving to San Antonio to take a position as assistant athletics director at St. Anthony Catholic High School.

So he reached out to his brother, Ralph, who coached at The Master’s School in Connecticut, about taking him in. But Ralph suggested Bassey play for J.R. Hargrave at Northwest Catholic School, another Connecticut school. Northwest Catholic agreed to take Bassey and his cousin B.J. Faniran.

But when that fell through, Auriantal acted fast and asked St. Anthony’s board members if they could take in Bassey and Faniran on short notice. Known for housing international students, the small Catholic school said it would make a decision in 72 hours. But Auriantal still had concerns.

“So I talked to my wife and she understood the kid was in a tough situation,” Auriantal said, “and luckily 72 hours later the school accepted him.”

Not long after he arrived on Aug. 9, 2015, tragedy struck as Bassey’s mother died in a freak accident. He had only been away from home for a month. But Bassey wasn’t informed of her death until a week later for fear he would give up his basketball dream and return to Nigeria, which would have forfeited his student visa.

“They didn’t know how to tell me, because they knew how I was going to feel,” Bassey said. “I was going to want to come back, because I remember my mom was the last person I saw before I left. She was the last person I saw at the airport before going on the plane. It was very emotional before I left with my mom and everything.”

Bassey had become accustomed to speaking to family members, including his mother, almost daily. He spent hours on the phone chatting with his mother.

But one Friday afternoon, Bassey was called into the principal’s office. He thought he was in trouble when he saw St. Anthony staff members in the room along with Auriantal and Faniran and heard his family on conference call. Once he was seated, Bassey’s father informed him of his mother’s accident and how she was rushed to the hospital where doctors were unsuccessful while trying to save her.

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“Up to today, I don’t even know where my mom was buried, because I haven’t been back since I came here,” Bassey said. “Obviously, I’m trying to go back next summer if everything works out the way that it is. I obviously want to see where she’s buried.”

The loss created a stronger bond between Bassey and the Auriantal family. Auriantal and Romao became Bassey’s protectors and received legal guardianship in 2017.

These days, you can’t tell them they’re not blood related. The Auriantal family refers to Bassey as its oldest son. And he treats their three children, Naevhen, now 7, Teylan, 4, and Khennix, 2, like his biological brothers.

“When I kind of embraced the situation with Charles was when his mom passed away,” Romao said. “I knew it was very difficult. ... We know what it is not to have family around. So that’s what we did.

“We’ve treated him like a son.”

Bassey quickly transformed St. Anthony basketball.

“All of a sudden, here’s this kid that plays at St. Anthony’s and they are winning all these games,” said James Lewis, an AAU coach and former St. Gerard Catholic School player. “Here’s this guy, he’s tall. He’s blocking all these shots. We’ve haven’t had anybody really change the landscape like him here since Devin Brown [a former South San Antonio West High standout and NBA player].”

Peanut Brown had to see it for himself. He witnessed the freshman terrorize the other team, so he called Joaquinn Arch. Together, the two have trained and coached around 40 kids in San Antonio who have gone on to play professional basketball.

“He said, ‘Joc, you need to get your [butt] in the gym,’ ” Arch said. “There’s this kid you got to see. ... So I came and this kid was going nuts, blocking shots, pump faking. I said, ‘This kid’s for real. He’s a pro.’ ”

Many recruiting analysts considered Bassey the best prospect in the class of 2019. He averaged 20.2 points, 17.1 rebounds, and 5.9 blocks, leading St. Anthony to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools final. That summer, Bassey competed in the Jordan Brand Classic International Game and was named MVP.

“You had everybody asking, ‘Who’s this kid at Anthony’s of all places, putting them on the map?’ ” Lewis said. “The other coaches were like, ‘How did St. Anthony’s get this kid?’ And everybody started digging into what’s going on. That’s how much of an impact he had.”

The focus on St. Anthony heightened during Bassey’s sophomore season as more international players arrived from Canada and Africa. No wrongdoing was committed or found, according to Auriantal, former principal Dr. Rene Escodedo, and former dean Alejandro Calderón.

But before his sophomore season, the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools ruled Bassey and four first-year St. Anthony students ineligible for receiving inducements for athletic purposes. The school filed an appeal.

While the appeal was going through, coach Jeff Merritt played Bassey in St. Anthony’s 61-49 win at home against Beeville. Escobedo told the San Antonio Express-News two days later that Merritt was fired because he chose to put Bassey on the court. St. Anthony left TAPPS in early December to join the Texas Christian Athletic League, where the players’ eligibility was restored.

“When he came in, egos were hurt from the other schools around the area,” Calderón said, “because they were getting beat by a school that was not supposed to beat them. Once Charles beat them almost single-handedly, their boosters were upset. There were people in the community who were upset and it’s not like we were doing anything different from them.

“If the shoe was on the other foot, it would have been accepted because it continues to be done to this day in football and basketball. But because we’re who we are, [this happens]. We didn’t have the support that we needed to have.”

After Auriantal received negative attention, he left the school and Bassey moved to Louisville. There, as a junior, he attended classes at DeSales High School and played basketball for Aspire Basketball Academy. With enough credits, Bassey graduated high school early and accepted a basketball scholarship to Western Kentucky, where Auriantal received an assistant coaching position.

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Escobedo’s disappointment is that Bassey didn’t graduate from St. Anthony.

“It would be nice for St. Anthony to say we left our mark with this young man, because I think he impacted the school,” he said. “The story that is shared isn’t the story that should be shared.

“It should be this young man had an opportunity to go to a Catholic school, which embraced him and love him and made sure he had what he needed for the next stage of his life.”

Bassey was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in his first collegiate season. He also garnered All-Conference USA first-team honors. However, his sophomore season was cut short after he suffered a season-ending knee fracture in the 10th game against Arkansas.

As a junior, he returned and swept conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors.

“I’m not going to mention anybody’s name, but teams called me and said they were going to be pick me at this number,” Bassey said. “I was listening to it. They were kind of scared because of my knee. So that’s why I dropped. Everything happens for a reason.

“But I know I’m a first-round pick. I know I have a first-round talent.”

Bassey did display talent when called upon by the Sixers.

He appeared in 23 NBA games last season, averaging 3.0 points on 63.6% shooting along with 2.7 rebounds, 0.7 block, and 7.3 minutes.

However, those numbers didn’t show his true value.

With the Sixers missing four players to COVID-19 protocols, Bassey played 4 minutes, 46 seconds against the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 9. He blocked two shots in the second quarter, rejecting a Jrue Holiday layup attempt and stopping Giannis Antetokounmpo’s reverse layup only a minute later.

He later served as one of the Sixers’ lone highlights in a 35-point loss to the Utah Jazz on Nov. 16. Bassey scored five points on 2-for-2 shooting and had four rebounds and one block in nine minutes.

Afterward, coach Doc Rivers raved over his play.

“I thought Charles was the best guy of the young guys,” Rivers said. “I thought he was fantastic. He knows the coverages and stuff already, and that’s really impressive for a young guy.”

Despite that and a number of other impressive performances in early December, Bassey made only 11 appearances the rest of the season, with most of them coming in mop-up duty.

And that brings us back to his tenuous connection to the Sixers entering the 2022-23 season. The people who know Bassey best are confident he will be fine despite being waived.

“Some kids, you call them survivors, you call them people able to deal with adversity,” Escodedo said. “You can’t train that part. But I think Charles has proven himself. He does have that chip in him that he overcomes adversity.

“He’s still a young guy. I can’t wait to see what’s next for him.”