At 11, Pascal Siakam was sent to a Catholic seminary in Cameroon. His father hoped he would become a priest.
Siakam, the youngest of six children, spent years at the seminary before deciding it was not his path. He did not take basketball seriously until he was about 16. Less than a decade later, he was an NBA champion.
A late start
Siakam was born in 1994 in Douala, Cameroon. His father, Tchamo Siakam, was a town mayor who loved basketball and had sent Pascal’s older brothers to play in the United States. Pascal preferred football.
He was invited to a basketball camp in Cameroon run by Luc Mbah a Moute, a Cameroonian NBA player, and then to Basketball Without Borders, an NBA programme that brings talented young players from Africa together. Coaches noticed his energy, length and willingness to work, and he moved to the United States to play in high school and then at New Mexico State University.
The NBA
In 2014, while Siakam was studying and playing in the United States, his father died in a car accident in Cameroon, and Siakam could not attend the funeral. The Toronto Raptors drafted him 27th in 2016. Few expected him to become a star. He has said he dedicated his career to his father’s dream of seeing his sons in the NBA.
He improved rapidly. In the 2018-19 season he won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, and he was a key starter as the Raptors won their first NBA championship in 2019, beating the Golden State Warriors in the Finals. In the first game of the series, he scored 32 points.
All-Star and beyond
Siakam became an All-Star and one of the Raptors’ leading players. In 2024 he was traded to the Indiana Pacers, where he helped the team to deep playoff runs.
Giving back
Through his PS43 Foundation, named after his jersey number and his father, Siakam supports young people in Cameroon and Africa through basketball and education. He has returned to Basketball Without Borders camps as a mentor, the same programme that helped him.
Africa’s NBA pipeline
Siakam’s story is part of a growing wave of African players in the NBA, alongside stars such as Joel Embiid, also from Cameroon, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the son of Nigerian parents. The NBA’s investment in Africa, including the Basketball Africa League, grew in part from stories like his.
2025 Finals
In 2025, Siakam led the Pacers to the NBA Finals, where they lost a seven-game series to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was named Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference Finals, a reminder of how far the late starter from Cameroon had come. He had now reached the Finals with two different teams.
He was meant for the priesthood. He ended up lifting a championship trophy, and he still talks about the father who first believed he could.
