Cameroonian basketball player in the NBA: Luc Richard Mbah A Moute

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is a Camerborn basketball player for Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA and the Cameroon National Basketball team (Silver medalist in Angola 2008 with Cameroon) . He was born on September 6th 1986 in Yaounde with his twin brother Emmanuel Bidias a Moute who plays for Texas State University. Mbah a Mouté is a prince in his native village of Bia Messe (near Yaounde) as he is a son of the elected village chief, Camille Mouté à Bidias.

On a hoop attached to a street lamp, Luc taught himself the basics of basketball. His lanky frame was perfect for the sport, and with the relentless effort that would come to define him, he rapidly improved. Just two years after first touching the leather, Luc was playing on Cameroon’s national youth team. Not long after, he was chosen to travel to the NBA’s inaugural “Basketball Without Borders” camp in South Africa.

He enrolled at Montverde Academy in Florida. Mbah a Mouté led the Pac-10 Champion Bruins in rebounding as a freshman. Mbah a Mouté led or tied for the lead for the Bruins in rebounding in 27 regular season games. In the NCAA tournament, Mbah a Mouté scored the winning layup at the end of a comeback win over Gonzaga in the Sweet 16. Mbah a Mouté also posted 17 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist in a Final Four victory over LSU. For the year, Mbah a Mouté averaged 8.9 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Along with another Cameroonian, Alfred Boya, they sparked off the ”Cameroon crazies” in UCLA with T-shirts of ”Moute kicks Boute” (available on his site)

Mbah a Moute ended his UCLA career with an honorable mention All-pac 10 ,honorable mention Pac-10 All-Defensive Team selection and a fifth place finish in scoring (8.8 ppg). He is ranked as the No. 15 rebounder with a total of 775 rebounds.

Mbah a Moute became the first player to start in three straight Final Fours at UCLA in 34 years.

After the season ended Luc made the difficult decision to turn pro, joining UCLA’s two best prospects, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love in the draft, With the 37th pick in the NBA Draft, Luc became a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Luc began the season spelling Charlie Villanueva off the bench, and had no trouble adjusting to the NBA. He scored six points in his first pro game and by just the fourth game of the season, he recorded his first ever NBA double-double when he scored 11 points and hauled in 13 rebounds in a win over the New York Knicks.

In his first year, he averaged 7.2 points and 5.9 rebounds. He averaged more rebounds that all but two of the rookies taken in the top ten of his draft class. The Bucs finished the season 34-48, only five games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. It was an eight-game improvement over the 2007-2008 season.

He posted 19 points and 17 rebounds in their 101-96 victory over Memphis Grizzles. As of March 21, 2010, Mbah a Moute has averaged 7.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in his career. He has shot 47.6% from the field in about 26 minutes per game.

While his career in the NBA is just beginning, Luc has already started to think about what he can do off the basketball court. He hopes to return to his native Cameroon and use his resources to improve the education of many of his fellow Cameroonians.

“Kids are the future of tomorrow and what I want do is help those kids get an education,” said Luc.” lot of them don’t have parents who can pay for school and don’t have anyone to take care of them, so sometimes they end up dropping out and going to the streets and to find something to eat instead of getting an education. I’d like to try and get kids back in school so they can go somewhere with their life.”

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