The Man Who
Kept Everything

A Life in Nigeria

On the 11th of December 1969, Oliver Berdeen Johnson stepped off a plane in Lagos on a 21-day visitor’s permit. He has not left since. Born in Washington D.C. on 7 April 1940, he served in the US Army, studied at Pacific Lutheran University, joined the American Peace Corps and was posted to Kenya in 1967.

By January 1971 he was Nigeria’s National Coach of Basketball — the first person ever to hold that title on a full-time paid basis. He drove across the country in a Volkswagen Beetle painted in Nigeria’s national colours, carrying basketballs, nets, and spare jerseys in the boot. People called it his “moving gym.”

“You cannot talk about basketball in Nigeria without him.”— Col. Sam Ahmedu, FIBA Africa Zone 3 President

He spotted a tall teenager named Hakeem Olajuwon in Lagos. The boy’s parents did not want him playing basketball. Olajuwon asked OBJ not to tell them. OBJ didn’t. He sent him to the University of Houston. Hakeem Olajuwon went on to be named one of the fifty greatest players in NBA history.

On the courts of Ahmadu Bello University, a young Masai Ujiri came of age under OBJ’s guidance. Ujiri is now President of the Toronto Raptors — NBA champions. The line runs direct: from a basketball court in Zaria to a front office in Toronto.

A Life’s Record