South African basketballer ‘walking on air’ in US

When Samkelo Cele received a call last month from the New York Knicks inviting him to join their team for the National Basketball Association (NBA) summer league, he was stunned.

“What a surreal moment,” Cele, 27, who hails from Clermont township near Durban, told the Sunday Times this week.

“I had just finished a workout when the phone rang. The little boy inside me almost couldn't believe the news, even though it is something I have dreamed of and worked for over many years.”

Cele is the first South African to be invited to play for a US side in the NBA summer league.

He is now in Las Vegas, living in a luxury hotel while the event is under way. The summer league is an off-season competition held by the NBA and is taking place in Las Vegas this year from July 12 to 22. Teams are often made up of incoming rookies and second-year players, and Cele will be given an opportunity to show what he can do on the court.

“Basketball has changed my life,” Cele said, adding he was “still walking on air” after receiving the call last month that changed his life.

He credits his success to his former coach Letha Zulu, who spotted him as a youngster playing on the streets of Clermont and helped get him into Durban Boys High School from grade 10.

“That changed everything for me. Clermont is a place of harsh reality. It is where dreams very easily just stay dreams because of a lack of resources and power,” the 1.94m sportsman said.

Zulu passed away earlier this year.

“He left a huge hole in my life. Coach Letha, or Gabeza as we called him, was a central figure in my life and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him and wish he could see where I am now.”

Cele is a shining example of what is possible.

“Like all of the more impoverished areas in South Africa, Clermont has challenges like drugs and crime and violence. My love of basketball and the sheer amount of work that went into following my dream saved me from all those wrong things,” Cele said.

“I am still reeling that all this is happening. I know all this can disappear and be gone tomorrow and I will just be a kid from Clermont and DHS again.

“So I try to enjoy every moment while this adventure lasts, working hard and still dreaming of a basketball future.”

“Because of coach Gebaz, I had the opportunity to start attending a very good school. At DHS I worked my guts out and my team also helped to make me perform. We were very close and I am still in contact with many of the guys who are cheering me on from the sidelines,” Cele said.

The coach put Cele's interests first, “often at the cost to himself without ever asking for a dime. He is such an important part of my journey and my basketball journey.”

Hard work is the beating heart of Cele's success.

“Youngsters who want to follow this path must know there is no such thing as too much hard work. People who know me from school will tell you I was always the first one on court and the last one to leave. Practice has very little immediate gratification. The best you can do is to turn it into a habit. Then it becomes like breathing. Even now, I wake up every day at 6am and hit the gym hard, before the rest of my team starts their day.”

Cele played a blinder of a season for the Cape Town Tigers in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) last year. He averaged 20.2 points per game and finished second in scoring in the league. He led the team to the semifinals and was named to both the 2024 All-BAL First Team and All-Defensive Team.

But Cele said the past two years had been frustrating at times. Since finishing school he has played stints at various US colleges.

“I played college basketball at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Southern College, Marist and the University of Science & Arts OK Drovers and I was chosen as a third team NAIA All-American.

“Over the last two years there were talks with other teams but nothing came from it until that phone call in June.”

A former team mate of Cele's, Sem Kim-Kayembe is the master in charge of basketball at DHS.

“Samkelo is a special player and everybody could see that immediately when he arrived here in grade 10 in 2014. He was the hardest worker I ever saw. He absolutely deserves every little bit of success that comes his way,” Kim-Kayembe told the Sunday Times.

“When we played it was always a team effort, but Samkelo stood out. He was like the lead singer of our almost unbeatable band. By matric, in 2016, we were the best schools' basketball team in the country and a lot of that was thanks to the talents of Samkelo.”

Another South African, basketball coach, Goitsemang Ditsheko, will also take part in the summer league, as part of the coaching team for the Houston Rockets, according to the BAL.