From Senegal to All-Star Weekend: Gorgui Dieng's Journey Is Just Getting Started

The Minnesota Timberwolves have the second-worst record in the NBA, but things could be worse. On Friday night, the Wolves will have four players on the floor in the Rising Stars Game, which kicks off All-Star Weekend; it's the largest contingent sent by one team in the event's 21-year history, and that's something.

Andrew Wiggins, one of the most hyped prospects of the past decade, overwhelming rookie of the year favorite and erstwhile centerpiece of the NBA's principle offseason drama, will be representing the Wolves in the game. Shabazz Muhammad, formerly the top high school prospect in the country and currently enjoying a breakout sophomore season, will be there. The high-flying Zach LaVine, who will be featured in the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night, is on the roster as well.

Then there's Gorgui Dieng. When asked recently if he's excited for the Rising Stars Game, he paused, thought about it for a second, and answered slowly, "Um… it's just another game."

Dieng's path to the highest level of basketball in the world was anything but conventional. He was born in Kebemer, Senegal on January 18, 1990. The West African nation has produced nine NBA players, but is hardly a basketball hotbed on the order of Nigeria (13, including Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon) or Angola (winner of 11 of the past 13 African Cups). Dieng didn't begin to get serious about the game until his late teens—that is, around LaVine's age right now.

Dieng's big break came in 2009, when he won MVP honors at a Nike-sponsored Basketball Without Borders Clinic in South Africa. Soon he was on his way to Huntington Prep in West Virginia, one of the best high school programs in the United States, and a school that counts O.J. Mayo, Patrick Patterson, and, yes, Andrew Wiggins among its NBA-grade alums. Dieng turned 20 halfway through his senior season at the high school and dominated the (much) younger competition to the tune of 15 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots per game.

He arrived in Louisville as a soon-to-be 21-year-old freshman. It didn't take long for the famously gruff Rick Pitino to gush about his hardworking center. "I love Gorgui so much," Pitino said in 2012, Dieng's sophomore season. "We're not a humble society, athletes today. It's just so much fun coaching him, because it's a throwback."

"When I was at Louisville," Dieng said, "I knew I needed to be a role player. Set screens for shooters, block shots. I wasn't concerned about myself. Don't be selfish, that's the most important thing."

Dieng's unselfishness, as well as his defensive presence and complementary skill set on offense, helped propel Louisville to the 2013 National Title. In the NCAA Tournament, Dieng averaged 9 points and 7 rebounds on an absurd 77 percent shooting from the field, opting for high percentage looks rather than forcing his own offensive game.

This was always going to be his last season in college. Dieng had taken part in Senior Day, even though he was technically a junior. The National Championship was a fitting end for a fine career, and with a first round projection in hand, Dieng declared for the Draft.

Gorgui means "the old one" in his native tongue of Wolof. The name fit, and then fit too well: where he had been lauded for his maturity and work ethic, his age suddenly became a detriment at draft time. Teams were concerned about how much more he could develop; while scouts were certain he'd be a functional player, they feared he was already a finished product with limited upside. Minor knee and wrist issues didn't help, but groupthink greased Dieng's slide to the 21st pick of the draft. That was when Utah picked him, and promptly dealt him to Minnesota.

"I believe in winning," Dieng stated at his introductory press conference the day after the draft. During his rookie year, the Wolves won at a higher rate than they had in a decade—they finished the season 40-42, their best record in nine seasons—but Gorgui himself wasn't a big part of it until the season was almost over.

Dieng was buried on the bench during the Wolves' playoff push, logging just 260 minutes of floor time over the season's first four months. As late as February, Dieng had recorded more personal fouls (44) than points scored (43). But in mid-March, an injury to Nikola Pekovic opened a window of opportunity for Dieng to play major minutes, and he grabbed the opportunity with both of his enormous hands.

From March 15 through the end of the year, Dieng averaged 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game, winning Western Conference Rookie of the Month in March and earning a spot on the All-Rookie team at season's end. The veterans on the team were excited that Gorgui's hard work was paying off.

Kevin Love, often a bit reserved or even surly during what turned out to be his final campaign in Minnesota, had nothing but praise for Dieng. "He's a lot like me, in the sense that, when I was a rookie, I kept thinking, 'Man, I should be out there playing,'" Love said. "But I continued to get myself ready, and I got my opportunity later on in my rookie year. That's what he's been able to do, and he's really taken advantage of it."

J.J. Barea went even further. "(Dieng) is awesome," he said after a late March blowout of the Atlanta Hawks. "(I'm) so proud of him. He's been working all year, and when the time came, he took advantage."

"He knows how to play," Barea continued. "And he's got a little swag - he thinks he's really good." Corey Brewer echoed those sentiments. "He's got game… and yeah, he's got a little swag. But he goes out there and does it, which I like." Dieng himself was a bit more reserved when asked, at the time, about his swagger and confidence levels. "It takes a lot of work, get here early, stay late," he said.

"That's where it comes from," he concluded, and left it at that.

Dieng rode his encouraging final month of the NBA season into the FIBA Basketball World Cup in August. The self-described college and NBA "role player" was suddenly the main focus of the Senegalese national team, which was trying to notch its first victory on the world stage in more than a decade and a half.

"For Senegal, I knew they needed me to do everything; score, rebound, be a leader," Dieng said recently. "And I came up big."

Playing 218 of a possible 244 minutes in Senegal's six contests, Dieng led his team in scoring (16.0), rebounding (11.3), and blocks (1.5) per game. Senegal advanced out of group play by beating Puerto Rico and upsetting Croatia behind Dieng's monstrous 27 point, 8 rebound, 3 block night. They nearly stole a third game, taking the Phillipines to overtime only to fall by two points. Dieng never came off the floor in that one: 40 minutes of regulation, plus 4 minutes in the extra session. It was never in doubt. Senegal needed him.

"I'm ready to play on any stage," Dieng says. "And I know my role. I can play on different teams and play the way people want me to play." By making it past the group stage and into the knockout round, Senegal qualified for the Rio Games in 2016, the nation's first Olympic appearance since 1980. "We're going to win the African Cup this summer," Dieng confidently asserts, "and I'm excited, looking forward to the Olympics."

Shortly after the start of the new NBA season, a rash of injuries hit the Timberwolves, including wrist and ankle problems for Nikola Pekovic, giving Dieng another opportunity to spend a great deal of time in the starting lineup. Over the two months Pekovic was away, Dieng averaged 33 minutes per night and was, at times, the only true center on the roster. With that came many responsibilities, some of which Dieng wasn't quite ready for. Still, coach Flip Saunders noticed significant progress.

"My toughness on young players has to do with repeated mental mistakes," Saunders said after a recent loss. "But Gorgui has gotten to the point where, when he makes a mistake, before I even have to yell at him, he tells me he did it wrong. We're making baby steps in the right direction. The next step is to do it right."

That is what Dieng spends his time working on, and gladly. "When I'm here," he says of the team's practice facility, "I don't want to leave. Just, hang out, talk in the locker room, get shots up after practice, playing games. That's what being a team is all about."

With Pekovic's return to the lineup in late January, Dieng's minutes dipped to 26 per game. This is worth mentioning mostly because of how little it seems to have fazed Dieng. He's both confident and compliant, self-assured and self-aware. He speaks openly of wanting to fit in, doing what his coaches ask him to do, but is anything but passive when he's on the court.

There are times he grabs an offensive rebound and opts to make a post move rather than dishing the ball back out, which would probably be the smarter play. He's hardly a ball hog—only Robbie Hummel attempts fewer shots per-36 minutes than Dieng among current Timberwolves—but he isn't passive, either. Dieng walks the fine line between being aggressive and being cooperative, and makes it look not just easy, but natural.

The format of the Rising Stars game is different this season than in years past. Rather than simply pitting first year players versus second year players, in 2015 it's the United States versus the World. Dieng will suit up for the World squad alongside Andrew Wiggins, his Canadian teammate; the Wolves' pair of UCLA products, Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine, will wear the USA uniform.

So it's not quite just another game, then. Dieng reconsidered, just a moment after his dismissal of it as such. "I'm looking forward to playing against my teammates." There is, after all, a chance that Dieng might see Muhammad, his teammate and an adept post player, down on the block, one-on-one.

And it that happens? A wry smile slowly creeps across Dieng's face. He is a humble and uncommonly mature team player, but Dieng is a competitor, too. "Well," he says, "I block the shot, of course."