Isaac Evolue Etue Bofenda Bonga (born November 8, 1999) is a German professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who is playing for

FC Bayern München Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

of the German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

and the EuroLeague. Standing , he began his professional career with

Skyliners Frankfurt The Skyliners Frankfurt, currently known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their home arena is Ballsporthalle. The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga sinc ...

of the Basketball Bundesliga. Born in

Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...

, Bonga represents the senior German national team in international competitions. He was selected by the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

(second round, 39th overall) and immediately traded to the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

in the

2018 NBA draft The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including inte ...

Early life

Bonga was born in

, Germany to parents originally from

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. His father emigrated to Germany in the early 1990s with plans to move to Canada, but he instead stayed in the country and began living in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and then

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

. Bonga's older brother Tarsis plays

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

for

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, while his younger brother

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

also plays basketball. At age seven, Bonga began playing

streetball Streetball (or street basketball) is a variation of basketball, typically played on outdoor courts and featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players ...

in Neuwied, and two years later, he joined the local club.

Amateur career

Bonga is a product of Post SV Koblenz, and logged his first minutes in senior basketball during the 2014–15 season, when competing in Germany's fifth-tier level 2 Regionalliga with SG Lützel-Post Koblenz. After winning the championship with the team, and earning a league

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the fourth division (Regionalliga), he saw action in 24 games during the 2015–16 Regionalliga season, averaging 5.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2 assists per contest. He also represented the under-19 squad of

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

, in Germany's top-junior division NBBL.

Professional career

Skyliners Frankfurt (2016–2018)

In June 2016, Bonga signed a four-year deal with

of the

. He was invited to the NBA Top 100 camp in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

, the same month. Bonga was one of the top European prospects to be picked to attend the 2016 Basketball without Borders Camp Europe in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in September 2016. Bonga made his Bundesliga debut for the Skyliners at age 16 on September 23, 2016, in an 84–55 loss to

Brose Bamberg Brose Bamberg is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia / North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup five times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketba ...

, as he played 28 seconds.

Los Angeles Lakers (2018–2019)

On May 1, 2017, Bonga signed with agents Jason Ranne and Thad Foucher to enter the

, and entered the 2018 NBA draft as one of 54 international players to enter the draft that year. On June 21, 2018, Bonga was selected with the 39th overall pick in the

by the

on behalf of the

. On July 6, the Lakers officially acquired Bonga in a trade involving the 76ers trading him to the Lakers in exchange for a 2019 second round pick and cash considerations. After the acquisition, he signed a rookie scale contract with the Lakers. He was assigned to their

NBA G 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 ...

team

South Bay Lakers The South Bay Lakers are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2006 as the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the team is owned by the Los Angeles Lakers, who were the first National Basketball Associa ...

on October 22, after having appeared in preseason contests for the Los Angeles Lakers. In his G League debut on November 3, Bonga scored 27 points in a 108–106 loss to the

Stockton Kings The Stockton Kings are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Stockton, California, and are affiliated with the Sacramento Kings. The Kings play their home games at the Stockton Arena and compete in the G League' ...

. He made his NBA debut on December 7, 2018, playing one minute and seven seconds against the

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

. On December 20, 2018, Bonga was sent back to the G League. Bonga saw the hardwood in 22 games in his NBA rookie season to average 0.9 points and 1.1 rebounds. In G League play, he tallied 11.9 points per game in 31 contests as a rookie.

Washington Wizards (2019–2021)

On July 5, 2019, Bonga was traded to the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast D ...

in a three-team trade. With the Wizards, he averaged 5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists per game in his first year (2019-20). In the 2020-21 season, he averaged 2 points, 1.7 rebounds and .6 assists per contest.

Toronto Raptors (2021–2022)

Bonga signed with the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

as a free agent on August 12, 2021. He saw action in 15 regular season games and had one playoff appearance, but never broke through.

FC Bayern München (2022–present)

On August 19, 2022, Bonga inked a two-year deal with German powerhouse

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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L.A. Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

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Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

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, 40 , , 8 , , 10.8 , , .370 , , .277 , , .625 , , 1.7 , , .6 , , .3 , , .2 , , 2.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

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Playoffs

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National team career

Bonga played at both the

2014 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2014 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 28th edition of the European Under-16 Basketball Championship. 16 teams participated in the competition, held in the four Latvian cities of Ogre, Grobiņa, Liepāja and Riga, from 20 to 30 Augus ...

and the

2015 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2015 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 29th edition of the European Under-16 Basketball Championship. 16 teams participated in the competition, held in Kaunas, Lithuania in two venues (Arvydas Sabonis Basketball Centre and the legendar ...

for the German under-16 national team. In 2017, he participated in the

2017 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup The 2017 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup (Arabic: 2017 كأس العالم لكرة السلة تحت 19 سنة فيبا) was the 13th edition of the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, the biennial international men's youth basketball champi ...

with the German under-19 national team, averaging 6.6 points in seven contests en route to a fifth-place finish. In November 2017, he was named to the senior German men's national team roster for the first time in his career, to take part in

the qualifiers In British rugby league system, the qualifiers was a competition that was played at the end of the regular rugby league season in the Middle 8 of the Super 8s. Structure At the end of 23 rounds of the regular season, the bottom 4 teams in the S ...

for the

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams. The tournament was hosted in China and was rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, becoming the first since 1967 FIBA World Ch ...

. Aged 18 and three months, he made his German senior national team debut on February 23, 2018, in a World Cup qualifier against

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, becoming the youngest German player to play for the senior team in 40 years. Bonga played for Germany at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo. In four appearances (four starts) at the Olympics, he averaged 8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest.

References

External links

Isaac Bonga
at nba.com

at fiba.com
Issac Bonga
at eurobasket.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonga, Isaac 1999 births Living people Basketball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics FC Bayern Munich basketball players German men's basketball players German sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Los Angeles Lakers players National Basketball Association players from Germany Olympic basketball players of Germany People from Neuwied Philadelphia 76ers draft picks Point guards Raptors 905 players Shooting guards Skyliners Frankfurt players Small forwards South Bay Lakers players Sportspeople from Rhineland-Palatinate Toronto Raptors players Washington Wizards players