Cheshire Phoenix centre Ethan Chargois hasn’t exactly followed the typical path of an American basketball prodigy.
Playing at Oklahoma State University for the Oklahoma Sooner’s, Chargois took a brave risk and moved abroad away from his family to the lovely county of Cheshire, to start a new journey in his basketball chapter.
The six-foot nine monster has not let the difficult move from across the North Atlantic affect his basketball, showing his impressive pedigree by making it as an All-Star starter team in his first season in England.
When asked about what keeps him going away from home, the 25-year-old said: "My family, I just know I have people counting on me back home in America, that I are relying on me to succeed, so I keep that in the back of my mind, try to never take it easy, never take days off, games off or things like that.
"Well, this is my second year doing it, so it wasn't as hard as the first time, and I think the transition was easier coming here just cause yanno there's no language barrier, and little things like that, so it wasn't as bad as my first year going overseas."
Chargois first moved away from home in the 2022/23 season to play for French third division basketball side Vitré, where he never met his potential.
After an unsuccessful year away from home moving abroad again would have seemed very unlikely, however Ethan did, so why Cheshire?
“I was considering coming here last year, last season, but it just didn't work out and then this year I had the opportunity I jumped on it pretty quick, just cause I was ready to experience England, and coach Ben had big plans for me and I liked his visions so I jumped at the offer for sure.
" The vision has been clear, with Chargois relishing at the Phoenix, a side that were not given a chance, now find themselves in send position, potentially capable of winning it all.
“At the start of the year we were projected to finish second to last in the league, and we all took that personally and came together and now we are second in the league.
“So, it's going pretty well."
Not only has Chargois found success in the league with Cheshire Phoenix, the Nix also won the domestic trophy, when they beat giants London Lions in the final last January.
Cheshire overcame their fierce rivals to win 98-86 and claim their sixth BBL trophy, which has stood out for the American.
“I mean even though I didn’t play, definitely winning the trophy in Birmingham, that’s probably the most excited I’ve been all year.
"I think I got hurt the week before the final, but the week up to that I was still playing.
"It was tough to take, but things happen for a reason, my only job then was to just cheer the team on and hope they could come through which they did.”
In England its typical for most children to start their sporting journey through grassroots football, with approximately 40% of children aged five to 16 participating in football alone, with the second highest sport being running with 27%, according to Statista.
However, in America there are three main sports that gather equal attention in American football, basketball and baseball, so what made Chargois choose basketball?
"Growing up I played all the sports, basketball, (American) football, baseball, football or soccer, I was big into sports from a really young age like five or six and kept playing all the sports until 16 or 17, and then a hit a pretty big growth spurt and then I stuck to basketball.
“I had coaches coming to my practices for other sports, saying I know you like sport but you're going to be a basketball player so in my senior year, I cut off playing all my other sports and stuck to basketball and now here we are.
"I liked basketball the most and was best at it, so I mean it was kind of a no-brainer.
"Before high school I was playing outside, in the neighbourhood park, back at school, things like that, then in middle school, seventh, eighth grade, then I started playing like real school basketball. I was outside before I made it to the gym, so it all started outside in the heat."
Despite recent success for Ethan, The British Basketball League has not always found itself to be sustainable to support players lives after they finish playing.
With players earning the average salary of £20,000 while playing, according to Hoopsfix.
“I would say basketball is obviously my favourite, but I have other interests too outside of basketball, things like animals and cowboying, farming type of things that people don't know about me.
“After basketball I would say things like marketing, I have a degree in sports management and marketing so I could do something with a sports team, not exactly basketball but maybe football, maybe track, something like that just being around sports but not necessarily in basketball.
With the likes of Trae Young, Blake Griffin and Buddy Hield all notorious NBA products of Oklahoma State, who knows what Ethan Chargois will go on to be... maybe he will make it in the NBA himself or maybe he we will be a Cowboy.
All we know for certain is Chargois will have to be at his best to bring home Cheshire’s first BBL championship since 2002, but first he must guide his team to the finals.
Comentários