Ifeanyi Festus Ezeli-Ndulue (born October 21, 1989) is a Nigerian-American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He previously played five seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for Vanderbilt before being selected with the 30th overall pick in the

2012 NBA draft The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball Ass ...

by the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

. Ezeli won an NBA Championship with the Warriors in 2015. He last appeared in the

2016 NBA Finals The 2016 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2015–16 season and conclusion of the 2016 playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the defending NBA champion and ...

, and did not play basketball since his knee surgery in the 2017 season until coming back in 2021.

Early life

Life in Nigeria

One of five children, Ezeli remembered in a 2011 interview with Andy Katz of ESPN.com, "My parents told me I was an unusual child. My first name is Ifeanyi, and that means 'nothing is impossible with God'. That sets the tone for my journey while I'm alive." He concentrated on academics, graduating from high school while still age 14, and aspiring to become a physician. To further his career goals, his parents sent him to live with his uncle, a

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

, in

Yuba City, California Yuba City (Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 70,117 at the 2020 census. Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistic ...

in 2004.

Life in America

Shortly after Ezeli arrived in Yuba City, his uncle encouraged him to take up what seemed to be the most appropriate sport for a 6'8" (2.03 m) teenager—basketball. This proved much more difficult for him than academics; although he had played soccer as a child, he had never played any organized sports. He took a year of classes at Jesuit High School in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, but did not play basketball; different sources report that he was either ineligible to play because he had graduated from high school in Nigeria or cut during tryouts. The start of his organized basketball career, with a low-level AAU team, was especially inauspicious; his first points were scored in his own team's basket. Recalling that incident, he said, "Everybody was running up the court, and I was just running with them. It's kind of surreal. Sometimes I think about it now and I'm like, Damn. How did I get here?" Also in the Katz interview, Ezeli remarked on his struggles to learn the game:

"I didn't know what I was doing. Imagine someone who is 14 or 15 years old, and you're teaching them as if they're a 6-year-old. It was tough. Everyone was getting frustrated with me. I was getting frustrated with it. I tried playing in 2005. I stopped. I tried again in 2006. And when I had my first dunk in a summer league game in Las Vegas in 2006, that's when I was so excited. It was so exhilarating that I started to like it."

At age 16, Ezeli joined a second AAU team and also enrolled part-time at

Yuba Community College Yuba College () is a public community college in Marysville, Yuba County, California. It is part of the Yuba Community College District. The college district has an extension campus in Yuba City, California. Yuba College is one of two colleges ...

. By not attending full-time, he retained a full four years of college eligibility and was still able to practice with the team; he also served as the team's

videographer Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...

. Although still learning the most basic of basketball skills, he made his high-level competitive debut on the AAU circuit in the summer of 2007. By then, he had reached 6'11" (2.11 m), and averaged 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game, earning an invitation to the Reebok All-American Camp in July 2007.

Recruitment

Ezeli's appearance at the camp marked a major turning point in his life. According to ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...

'' writer Pablo S. Torre,

"Recruiters. . .awaited his arrival as if he were
Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including Anecdotal evidence, ...
. They left with their heads spinning at Ezeli's size and raw potential, even if it was clear that he lacked confidence. Offers from 27 Division I schools he knew almost nothing about rolled in."

With the help of his AAU coaches, Ezeli narrowed his list to

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, Harvard, and Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt coaching staff sold him on the school, citing its academic reputation and the program's recent experience with international players. Head coach

Kevin Stallings Kevin E. Stallings (born October 1, 1960) is a former American basketball coach, who formerly served as the head coach at Illinois State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. He was an assistant coach at Purdue ...

added that Ezeli would be able to

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

his first year at the school to allow him more time to develop, since the program had a highly touted Australian prospect, A. J. Ogilvy, arriving at the same time and playing Ezeli's position.

College career

Ezeli arrived in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

in 2007 as a

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

major and among the rawest of basketball prospects. During his first two years in the program, while still learning many of the basics of the sport, he was frequently dominated in practice by Ogilvy. However, as early as midway through his redshirt freshman season, the Commodores staff noticed that Ogilvy was beginning to have difficulty scoring against Ezeli in practice. While obsessively studying the game and working on his basic skills, he spent his first two seasons of eligibility primarily as a backup to Ogilvy, occasionally starting, until Ogilvy declared for the NBA draft after the 2009–10 season. Festus Ezeli Vanderbilt Free Throw

With Ogilvy gone, Ezeli had a breakout season in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, averaging 13 points and 6.3 rebounds while being named a second-team All-SEC (

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

) performer. He also broke Will Perdue's Vanderbilt single-season record for blocked shots. Ezeli's improvement was noted by many in the basketball world; then-

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

coach Bruce Pearl told the ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'', "I don't think they miss gilvyat all. Ezeli has improved so much that he gives them the best of both worlds ffense and defense" Before the 2011–12 season, Ezeli was also named by ''Basketball Prospectus'' in its preseason outlook as one of the top 20 players in men's college basketball, along with teammates John Jenkins and

Jeffery Taylor Jeffery Matthew Taylor (born May 23, 1989) is a Swedish-American professional basketball player for BC Wolves of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). He played college basketball for Vanderbilt University, before being drafted 31st overall by ...

. As the Commodores were preparing for Ezeli's final season at Vanderbilt, Stallings said about him,

"He now has a feel for the game. He has made himself an effective player. I think it's very rare. All of us are looking for more finished products. But we all understood if the payday came, if it really came, if he understood the game, if he was experienced, then it was going to give him a chance to be different than other guys. He didn't learn the game in elementary school like I did. He was trying to learn the game while competing effectively in the SEC. That makes it even more amazing."

NCAA statistics

Professional career

Golden State Warriors (2012–2016)

Ezeli was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the 30th overall pick in the

. On July 6, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Warriors. As a rookie in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Ezeli started many games for the Warriors in place of injured center Andrew Bogut. On January 19, 2013, Ezeli had a season-best game with 13 points and 8 rebounds in 116–112 win over the

New Orleans Hornets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

. In June 2013, Ezeli was ruled out for six to nine months after undergoing surgery on his right knee. He subsequently missed the entire 2013–14 season, returning to action for the Warriors in the team's 2014–15 season opener. On December 22, 2014, he scored a then-career-high 15 points in a 128–108 win over the Sacramento Kings. The following day, he sprained his left ankle in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and was confined to a moon boot. The injury kept him out all of January, when on January 28, he was assigned to the

Santa Cruz Warriors The Santa Cruz Warriors are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Santa Cruz, California, and are affiliated with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors play their home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena. Prior to ...

of the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

for rehabilitation. On February 2, he was recalled by Golden State after successfully competing in two D-League games. The following day, he made his return for Golden State, playing eight minutes of action in a win over the Sacramento Kings. In the 2015 NBA playoffs, Ezeli logged key minutes as the first big man off Golden State's bench, often filling in for the foul-prone Andrew Bogut. The Warriors, with the help of Ezeli, advanced deep into the postseason to win the Western Conference Finals against

James Harden James Edward Harden Jr. (born August 26, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Harden is regarded as one of the greatest scorers and shooting guards in NBA ...

and the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Divisio ...

in a 4–1 series. Ezeli won his first NBA championship after the Warriors defeated the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

in the 2015 NBA Finals in six games. On August 1, 2015, Ezeli played for Team Africa at the 2015 NBA Africa exhibition game. On November 6, 2015, Ezeli scored a career-high 16 points as a starter in a 119–104 win over the Denver Nuggets. The Warriors' NBA-record start ended after 24 wins when they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 108–95 on December 12. On February 8, 2016, he underwent successful arthroscopic surgery to clean out debris from his left knee and was subsequently ruled out for six weeks. He returned to action on April 3 against the Portland Trail Blazers after missing 31 games. Ezeli helped the Warriors win an NBA record 73 games to eclipse the 72 wins set by the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls. The Warriors made it to the

after overcoming a 3–1 deficit against the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays i ...

, winning the Western Conference Finals in seven games.

Westchester Knicks (2021)

On July 7, 2016, Ezeli signed with the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

. On August 23, 2016, he was ruled out for six weeks after undergoing a left knee injection. Two months later, he suffered a minor setback in his comeback from the procedure, with swelling in his left knee. In mid-December, it became apparent to the Trail Blazers that conservative treatment of Ezeli's aching left knee wasn't working, and that season-ending surgery was imminent. On March 8, 2017, he underwent surgery on his left knee and was ruled out for the entire 2016–17 season. On June 30, 2017, he was waived by the Trail Blazers before appearing in a game for them. On March 2, 2021, Ezeli signed a contract with the

Westchester Knicks The Westchester Knicks are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in White Plains, New York, and are affiliated with the New York Knicks. The Knicks typically play their home games at Westchester County Center in White ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA De ...

, returning to

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought l ...

after a 5-years hiatus dealing with multiple injuries and difficult recoveries. He was immediately assigned the number 20 jersey. He appeared in two games. On April 17, 2021, Ezeli signed with

Rivers Hoopers Rivers Hoopers is a Nigerian basketball team based in Port Harcourt, Rivers. The team plays in the Nigerian Premier League. Established in 2009 as Royal Hoopers, the team has played in the Premier League since its inception. Hoopers have won the ...

to play in the inaugural season of the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league. The league consists of twelve teams, each qualified through their domestic competition, similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League. The league is a joint eff ...

(BAL). However, before playing a single game with the Hoopers, Ezeli got injured and was replaced by Robinson Opong.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Playoffs

, - , style="text-align:left;",

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2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

† , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 20 , , 0 , , 9.2 , , .540 , , .000 , , .552 , , 3.1 , , .3 , , .1 , , .5 , , 3.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016 , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 23 , , 1 , , 8.8 , , .536 , , .000 , , .432 , , 2.7 , , .3 , , .1 , , .3 , , 4.0 , - , - class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career , 55 , , 4 , , 9.5 , , .530 , , .000 , , .500 , , 2.8 , , .3 , , .1 , , .4 , , 3.4

Personal life

Ezeli has a half-sister named Marie Nkechi Ndulue. Although Ezeli began his Vanderbilt studies as a biology major, he changed his major to economics because of the time demands of basketball. Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said of Ezeli: "You can imagine what it's like to hear his perspective on world trade, globalization and the economics of American sports." Ezeli's parents live in